Realms Of Tamriel
by Feebasbellaswan
Summary: Edward is a computer nerd in love with one of the best divers on the school's team. He's too afraid to approach her, but his sister decides to play cupid and brings the two together. Can our Geekward get over his insecurities when he realizes that the girl he loves may just love him back? Reviews are wonderful!
1. Skyrim

**I am not stopping with Chosen, but I just had to get this out. It might not be what you guys like, and after all the bad reviews on 'You Have Me', my self-esteem has gone down a lot. I've been planning a novel of my own, and been reading the '**_**Matched' **_**series. If you haven't read it, I recommend it highly. There is a small glossary at the end for most things you may not know as this is a lot of Geekward, and he loves the game Skyrim :P It's short, but bare with me.**

**If you enjoy, please review!**

**EPOV**

"Damn thieving Khajiits," I mumbled almost incoherently to the blaring computer screen before me. Once again, I was hauled up in my cramped apartment on a Friday night. Skyrim, leaning tower of pizza boxes and code red Mountain Dew all within range at my desk. My dignity was long gone, pride was being washed down the drain, and I had never had a girlfriend. My geeky glasses, unruly hair and the dark bags under my eyes from being up all night wasn't really a turn-on for girls at any age. Unless you had bucket loads of money to spend on them, or were supposedly good in bed, you were just cast out. No female I knew liked Wood, High or Dark elves, or perhaps the Orcs that I played in this fantasy I was caught in.

Even if there was a girl at Dartmouth that enjoyed the imaginary world I lived in, I wouldn't want them. I wanted _her. _ The girl that I had known since I was about five, but never really had the nerve to talk to. Isabella Swan was the one I had dreamed about ever since I saw her running into our first lesson when she moved to Forks, her mahogany hair swishing behind her as she ran father away from her dad and toward her first day of school. She was a little clumsy back then, and tripped on one of the smallest stones on the pathway, but that had all dissolved now that she was one of the best divers on the women's swimming team. That tripping wouldn't help her at all when she practised, or was representing the school in competitions.

There were multiple things that drew me to her. Her beauty was obvious, the doe like chocolate eyes and gorgeous hair would make any guy beg her to go out with them, but I saw past that. I wasn't like my roommate, Mike, or any of his friends that just wanted the most popular girl on their arm for the attention. I was _in love_ with Bella because of her patient kindness, her intelligence, how trustworthy she was and the fact that she wasn't like the others. The majority of the girls I knew wanted the hottest guy, and whined about the stupidest things. Of course, many girls weren't like that, but there was something about Bella that pulled me in ever since she moved into Washington thirteen years ago.

But I knew I had no chance with her. Without trying, she was the most well-known person in our college, even if she hated it. When she was pointed out in a group, her cheeks were enveloped in an amazing pink blush, and her head would lean forward as she stormed away. I wanted to make her blush without upsetting her. Now that Mike and Tyler had tainted her feelings toward the glow spreading over her skin, even if I had a chance with her, she may detest me for trying. But, none of that mattered. I would never earn such a prize as Bella was, especially if I carried on like this.

My eyes were glued to my computer screen as I led my character through the winding pathways through the tall, snowy mountains of Skyrim, the fifth game in the epic fantasy, _The Elder Scrolls._ The main aim of the game was to fulfil your destiny as Dragonborn, the only one who is able to use the power of the Voice- the language of dragons. I had already completed the game about three times, but I kept replaying it on harder and harder levels, making thieves more common and dragons more deadly. Let me guess, you're completely lost by my nerd talk, right? That's why I barely have any friends and is only really liked to do other peoples work.

Right now, I was on a quest that I had just discovered on my fourth time playing this. I had to find and deliver a sword to a woman in Riften-a province in this part of my virtual world- It was a dull quest, the only excitement in it was being able to slaughter these weird, golden robots that just wouldn't fall. Once again, the loading screen that was taking me to my last save popped up on the monitor, and I just felt like banging my head on my wooden desk. I decided that I may as well just get up and clear away the clutter on my workplace, but before I could, a very drunk Mike fumbled with the keys outside and tried to unlock the door. I could hear the giggles of a girl I knew and I sighed. He had been to another party, and was bringing home his release for the night. Her name was Tanya Ashley, the blonde that strutted around, just waiting for some guy to grab her and take her home.

I escaped the room, taking refuge in my bedroom before they entered the apartment. When the lock finally clicked, I heard their drunken and heavy footsteps starting for Mike's 'Bachelor Pad'. His parents were rich, and gave him enough money to buy himself a flat screen, a king sized bed and plenty of other stuff that impressed the ladies. When I was sure that they wouldn't be disturbed, I snuck out of the apartment, locking the door behind me. I sighed in frustration, hating the fact that I was going to have to spend the night with my sister instead.

Rose was my older sister by only a year, and unfortunately, she was one of the girls I hated. The ones that wanted breast implants and fake hair. Luckily, my mother didn't allow any of this-even as legal adults, we both highly respected out parents opinion-but that doesn't stop Rosalie from walking into clubs clad in miniskirts, shorts and tank tops that didn't even cover her stomach. She kind of suited the look, though my view on it was bias as I grew up with her. She had platinum blonde hair that fell beyond her waist, and light purple eyes, and an attitude that most of the boys just went for. As I wandered through the hallways downstairs to her part of the building, I hoped that she wasn't the one throwing the party tonight, or at least she didn't have another idiot over or something. Last time I checked, it was Tyler.

As I approached the thin wooden door, I listened out for any moans or squeaking beds as my mind kept repeating, _please no Tyler, please no Tyler._ I gently tapped on the door. I heard hesitant footsteps creak towards me, but after spying me through the peep hole, Rose pulled the light door open, clad in a loose grey sweater and sweatpants. "Lemme guess. Mike's getting busy?" I nodded glumly, and she gestured for me to walk inside. As I did, I saw a pot of ice cream lying on the floor below the duvet caked couch. On the TV, there was a random show playing starring Charlie Sheen. Despite everything I detested my sister for; at least she had good taste in comedies. '_Two and a half men'_ was only good when Charlie Sheen was the one dragging the girl's home. I always thought that Mike was just like him. Not caring about their feelings and kicking them out when the sun rises. Luckily, we didn't have a ten year old kid to suffer it every morning while he ate Maple Loops.

"How have you been, Rose?" I questioned as I settled into the end of the couch, staying out of the way of her feet when they were planted back into the warmth of her blanket. She wasn't looking like her usual, bouncy self this evening. It may have been almost nine at night, but I would have thought that she would be at a party. Her hair was ruffled and the end of her nose was red from what seemed to be a cold. The tissues scattered around the pot of ice cream proved my theory.

She shrugged. "I caught a cold from that bitch Jessica. The other part, you don't wanna know. Anyway, I am in no shape for dancing or getting drunk, so I'll just watch repeats of the old ones of these," she gestured toward her TV, "Until I fall asleep." Why do girls refer to their friends as bitches? If it's a quick nickname that's used for a short time then forgotten, that sort of makes sense, but calling the one you grew up with something like that daily just confused me.

When Rosalie started dozing at about eleven, she lifted herself to brush her teeth and fall into her bed. Whilst she done that, I grabbed a sheet from a draw in her room and one of her extra pillows, hoping that she wouldn't notice. I laid everything out on the uncomfortable couch and removed my jumper, throwing it to the ground, and snuggled under the cover.

That night, as I barely survived through Rose's snoring echoing through the apartment, I thought to myself what has become of my life. I wanted to be a doctor, or at least that's what everyone wants me to be. I had a hidden passion in sketching, and call it gay if you want, but nearly everything around me inspired me to grab a pad and pencil and draw the scene around me. If nothing came to mind, or if I had recently done something similar, I would sketch anything from memory. I was embarrassed to admit it, but I had tried to capture Bella's beauty and transfer it onto paper. Of course, my mindless staring couldn't get a brilliant enough image of her imprinted into my brain so I could display it properly, but I got close.

When I actually thought about it, I was pretty much a stalker. I went to each of her practises, hiding in the stands as I watched her dive along with the rest of the perverts in my class. Mike had been hounding after her ever since high school, so had the rest of the boys had followed her to College. I hid behind them, watching as she floated on her back to get to the edge of the pool, occasionally kicking her legs or moving her arms to propel her faster.

I closed my eyes and finally managed to fall asleep during one of the few intervals in Rose's sleeping patterns. Who was I kidding? Bella was _way_ too good for me. She deserved a prince, not a geek who spends his days in front of a computer.

**Quick Glossary:**

**Khajiits, all the Elves and Orcs:**** All from the game of Skyrim. If you want a full picture, Google it. Khajiits are cat like creatures, but stand tall like humans, the Elves are just different types of Elves, and Orcs are kinda like Shrek's. A greeny browny sort of ogre.**

**Skyrim:**** The fifth instalment in the Elder Scrolls, which introduces the player to a world full of dragons and imagination. Just a game, really.**

**Two and a half men:**** Okay, if you ever watch this TV show, be sure to watch the ones with Charlie Sheen in it! The guy who plays Walden ruined it for me. It's about two brothers with a kid, and one of the brothers is an alcoholic bachelor. Hilarious.**

**Anything I missed from that, please tell me!**


	2. Cute

**BPOV**

_Ugh, not you again._

My diving session for the day was just ending, and I could already see the perverted Mike as he hurried down the steps of the stands to reach me. I grabbed my usual blue towel, and pondered on whether or not I should make a run for it, but before I could get a metre away from him, Mike was standing in front of me. His spiky blonde hair pointing into all directions, clearly stuck there by multiple uses of hair gel. _All right Mike,_ I thought to myself, _let's get this over with._

"Hey Bells!" He greeted, leaning over to wrap me in a hug, which I-hopefully- neatly dodged. He ignored my retreat and carried on with what he wanted to talk to me about. "There's a party tonight at Ben's house just outside campus. Do you...um... wanna be my date?" His hand wandered to scratch the back of his head in nervousness, and I almost groaned in frustration. It was obvious what would happen if I went out with Mike. He would take me out, fuck me, then make a runner or kick me out of his apartment at five in the morning and not talk to me for the rest of his life; unless he needed entertainment.

Why did I need to become popular? I'm a quiet girl, who just wants to sit in a corner with a couple of close friends. And that was the way it was until started diving altogether. At least that was what I _thought_ it was like. I did realise that Mike managed to get into Dartmouth when his heart was set on going to Alaska with that girl called Ally he was 'in love' with, but somehow he got his parents to buy his way in when I started leaping off diving boards into water. He left poor Ally heart-broken and hurt when we all graduated. And she always gave me the evils when she saw me, and there was only one solution to why this all happened. There was a club back in Forks held in the local swimming pool, and one day, the boys just happened to be walking through and watched my practise. That's when they became obsessed with claiming me, which was never going to happen.

Remembering where I was and what the question was, I shook my head violently. "Mike, honestly. I'm going to say no like I have every time. You're just... not my type." And with that, I swiftly go around him and toward the changing rooms, ignoring the wolf whistles and calls as I went.

Was Mike anyone's type? Perhaps Tanya's, though I'm not sure that even she would let him lead her to his apartment. I feel _really_ sorry for that guy's roommate, having to escape that place to keep clear of Mike's weekly play dates.

I sighed as I exited the changing rooms after redressing myself in slim jeans and a green t-shirt, which was luckily hidden under my brown hoodie. I didn't have enough money to splash out cash on stylish clothes, so I was left with whatever fit me. As I walked out of the doors toward my apartment for my usual quiet night, I spotted Jessica with her legs spread apart on the railing that wound around the swimming pools building. She was luckily wearing jeans, but she was also surrounded by boys. She was an okay girl, I guess, but when she managed to get slutty, you just didn't want to be within five metres of her. I walked along the stone pathway that passed her, seeing that Mike had joined the rest of the mooning boys, and a rhyme that someone had told me before crossed my mind.

"_Twinkle Twinkle little whore, close your legs they're not a door,_" I quietly whispered, hoping that none of them heard me. Thankfully, everyone else was too busy pining over the college's biggest hooker, and ignored my input, their minds only set on getting some tonight.

I trudged to my tiny apartment, making an act of turning the key slowly in the lock. I didn't have a roommate, so it was pretty lonely at times, but I did at least have one sort-of friend on this campus. Rosalie Cullen may seem like a stuck-up bitch, but she is actually really good at giving advice. She knows the right thing to say to what, and I had known her and her brother since we all lived in Forks. He was a cute boy. Constant mussed up bronze hair and amazing emerald eyes that he kept hidden behind his hood as he walked to and from classes. I never really had the chance to talk to him since he is almost always immersed in his games, and I was distracted by diving or school work, but he was a really nice guy.

In fact, his games and my school work weren't the only things that kept me from talking to him. Whenever I tried to say at least 'hi' to him, he bolts. Literally, one minute he's there, the next, he has vanished, only to be seen leaving the room. I just figured that he didn't like me, so I naturally stopped contact with him. It was childish to give up so quickly, but what was the point in pushing him? He didn't even like me enough to let me see his eyes.

My rented apartment building had three things: Mould spreading the ceiling, a bathroom that never ceases to burn my nose and the sluttiest neighbours on campus. The mould could be dealt with by bleaching the infected area, and the rotten bathroom can be freshened with _Frebreze_, but the ones who lived around me could only be removed if they got kicked out for having too many parties. Strangely enough, they never got caught with their loud get-togethers filled with alcohol and more naked girls running around than a strip club. I had figured earlier in the year that one of them has their father in the local police force, and that he had made a deal with him to not crash their parties, but wasn't that against his job?

I had thought multiple times about reporting them myself, complaining about teenagers drinking whilst underage and endless games of strip poker, but that would get me beaten up, and I'd rather keep my eyes from bruising. I had always been invited as Mike had proved earlier that day, but going to these drunken fests would only land me in trouble. Waking up in a fountain of puke embedded with chunks of food that I ate earlier wasn't exactly how I would like to spend any Saturday morning.

I sat down on my small couch, realising that I didn't have anything to do for the rest of the day. Studying was completed for the week, and I had just gone diving, so school work was done. And, my shabby apartment was spotless, about from the obvious patches of black on the corners of the ceiling, but I couldn't be bothered to go and buy bleach. I sighed, annoyed before I rose from my seat and wrapped my discarded coat back around me as I strode towards the door again. May as well see Rose tonight, if she's in at all. She only lived in the apartment block next door to mine, so visiting her was simple.

I walked outside; the sun was just setting, the bright yellow and white faded into deep reds and purples that mixed in with the blue as the fiery star left our part of the world. Sometimes I just stared at the sunset and pondered on why we were here, but then I just shook my head and called myself crazy for trying to understand the world. In was worse than attempting to play Chinese checkers. I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

I walked across the pavement and pressed the button with her room number on it at the community door. I patiently waited for about ten seconds before her hoarse voice was transmitted to the small speaker out here. "Hello?"

I cleared my throat before I spoke, "Hey Rose, its Bella." I immediately heard the lock of the door slipping out of place, indicating that I was allowed in. I opened the door, walked in and closed it shut behind me, hoping that I wasn't followed by stalkers. Hey, with my bad luck, it could happen.

My trip us the stairs was-luckily-uneventful and short, and in no time at all, I was at Rosalie's open door She greeted me in her usual comfort clothes and a look of depression on her face. "Hey Bells," She said. Midway through her weak words, recognition flashed into her eyes and her lips pulled into a sly smile. "I have something to tell you!" She claimed in a sing-song voice as she latched her hands onto my wrist and started dragging me inside the stuffy room.

I groaned. "What is it? A new outfit? You got another crate of make-up?" Rose was always the one who needed perfection, which usually involves her trying to make my face look somewhat like a masterpiece, or designing a new set of clothes for me to showcase for the campus. She shook her head violently and plopped down on the couch, tugging me down with her.

"I have something to tell you!" She repeated, bouncing up and down on the spot. I gestured for her to go on, and she did, easing me out of my confusion. "You know my brother Edward?" I nodded. "Well, I _finally_ figured out why he runs from you so much!" From the sound of it, this new theory didn't include him hating me in anyway, so I was all ears and eager to hear the mystery behind Edward Cullen. "My brother talks in his sleep, and last week he came round here because of Mike, like he always does," She rolled her eyes, "And fell asleep on my couch as I predict he will do in about two hours. Anyway, whilst he was asleep, I got up to get a drink, and I heard him whisper 'love you Bella'."

I blinked. Once. Twice. A third time before the words set in. "Are you sure?" That couldn't be right. He was so closed off and barely let me talk to him. How could he possibly love me? "Are you sure that was what you heard?"

She nodded rapidly. "It all makes sense now. His constant shyness, the way that he escapes the room when you show up... How could I not see it before? He's done this ever since you first came to Forks, and none of us even noticed it!" She grumbled. Whilst I was still recovering, trying to understand everything that she was throwing at me, she exploded again. "We need to get him to confess! Wait, do you like him?" Her eyes were intent on me, seeking an answer. If I said yes, she would go into matchmaking mode and I could possibly find the man of my dreams that has been there all along, filling my life with happiness. On the other hand, if I say no, Rose will be disappointed, I would never find out anything about Edward and not discover what these feelings that I have for him actually mean.

Yes, I did feel something for him that was past mere friendship. He was a nice guy, and his bronze locks that hid his face made him so cute. If he overslept and needed to get to class quickly-hence forgetting to brush it- I almost swoon with how he looks. All the other girls ignore the obvious amazing creature that sits among them, but I notice, and I want him.

I took a deep breath and decided to announce how I felt to Rose. _It's now or never._ "Yes, I do like him." She squealed a squeal so high pitched, that I was sure only dogs would be able to hear her. "But how can you be positive that he likes me back? How would you even get him to say anything if he does?" I buried my face into my hands as the questions flew around my mind. I heard Rosalie chuckling and I looked up to see her planning face on.

"Don't you worry, I've got it all planned out.

**Do you like? Please tell me in the reviews! See that box down there? Just click on it and type something in before clicking the post review button!**

**I'm sorry this took so long to post, I just honestly don't feel like writing :/ It'll pass, but in the meantime, are there any cool fanfics I can read? Please tell me!**


	3. No No No No No

**EPOV**

When I had woken up from my restless night at Rose's apartment, I was greeted by the smell of pancakes wafting in from the small kitchen along with the sound of music. I frowned. After the state she was in last night, I didn't think that she would be in such a good mood to make thin strips of eggs, flour and milk this morning. I slowly raised my legs off of the couch, letting the thin bed sheet fall to the ground, and started walking towards my crazy sister with the mood-swings.

When I got to the doorway, I saw Rose dancing to some random pop music on the radio as she poured some pale pancake mix into the pan, replacing the batch before it. When she came out of her haze, she noticed me standing there and grinned, a grin that scared me to the deepest depths of hell. "Hey Eddie!" What? She never called me Eddie. She _knew _that I absolutely _detested _the nickname Eddie. Then, I was beyond scared. I couldn't even think of a word that could describe what I felt in that moment.

"Um... Hi," I mumbled lamely. "What's all this for?"

Her smile had gotten impossibly wider, and I considered jumping out the window in the living room. "I have something to confess to you," She said, laying the next pancake on a plate before she coated it in maple syrup and sugar. Whatever it was that she had to confess, I apparently needed my favourite breakfast to comfort me through it. Whilst she handed me my meal, she picked up her own and led me to the couch as she had no table to eat at. We sat and ate; my stomach was up in knots as I tried to assume what she was planning. Luckily, after the last bite of her first cake of three, she allowed me into her mind.

"Bella came over here yesterday about two hours before you arrived, and I told her something that you may want to know." Yes I wanted to know. What she told the love of my life could change my course forever, and I needed to know where the change came from! Okay, I was a little overdramatic when it came to Bella. "And I need to tell you that I've discovered your secret." Oh crap. Her finding out any of my secrets was bad enough, but if it involved Bella, it was pretty specific what she knew.

I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. "What is it, Rose?" I growled, desperate to understand what she was leading to. She just giggled slyly as I mentally begged her to stop beating around the bush. "Free me from my misery."

She sighed, but thankfully cut to the chase. "Well, we both know that you talk in your sleep, and last week as I got up for a drink of water, I distinctly heard you whisper the words 'love you Bella'." Please no. God no. She told Bella didn't she? "And I just had to let the culprit in on what you've been hiding. Seriously, how did neither of us figure it out before? No one could ever be that shy." My world felt like it had just crumbled into dust. I'll never be able to get through Maths and English with Bella again. Not now she knows the one thing that I've been keeping from her all these years.

When I stayed silent in my shock, Rose took the opportunity to talk some more. "After she heard the news, she told me all this stuff about how you hide your eyes from her. What's up with that? It's not like they shoot lasers or anything." I hid my eyes from her because I didn't want to startle her. My eyes were a vivid green, and I had been teased for gaining them from my grandparents for years. I was told that they blind people, and though I knew that they were all lies, somehow those bullies just got to me. Now, I couldn't bear for Bella to see what my sockets contain in case she started thinking that I was a freak, so I kept them concealed behind my hair and the hood of my usual jacket. Rose still sat there, awaiting my answer, so I decided to give her one.

"You know why I hide my eyes," I mumbled, averting the things in question to the sugar shaken on my pancakes, which still lie on the plate on my lap. "And you had no right to tell her what you did."

She rolled her eyes. "You must have known that you couldn't keep this under wraps forever. So, I only have one question. When are you gonna ask her out?" I groaned at the impossibility. For the love of all that is holy, why did she have to ask me this? I would never build up the courage to ask Bella out, and Rose should know that by now. After all, wouldn't I have already taken that massive step if I were brave enough? "And don't give me that 'I'm not up to it' crap."

"Just get out of my life, Rose." I demanded as I decided that I could live without the pancakes for now if it got me out of here. Mike would have kicked Tanya out by now anyway, I was sure, so there was no harm in escaping now. "I'm leaving." I got up and lifted my jacket from the couch cushions, but my persistent sister stopped me, pointing towards the ceiling. Weirdly enough, I lived right above her, and if you listened carefully, you can hear the soft _thump, thump, thump_ as it echoed from Mike's room, as well as a few moans and groans. I sighed and sat back down, preparing myself for the wrath of Rosalie Cullen.

But, she just grumbled something to herself, her eyes looking out into space. All of a sudden, her face lit up like Christmas. "I'm guessing that you wouldn't allow me to ask her for you myself..." I shook my head rapidly, agreeing with her assumption. "...So I'll just have to go with what I've already planned." She smirked, and got up to get dressed, leaving me with my mouth gaping open. Another one of Rose's plans would end up in flames for me. I picked myself up once again from my seat and took my coat without hesitation this time, and slipped it on. I called out a quick goodbye to my sister before exiting the room, and her apartment.

I was going to have to interrupt Mike's playtime so I could have breakfast. I wasn't going to have another one of those breakfast wraps from _MacDonald's_ again for at least a month, and if you walked into the living room-even as quietly as a mouse- Mike would hear you and start bellowing out profanities for destroying his fun. _Well,_ I thought to myself, _sorry for messing up your game, Mikey._ After trekking up the stairs, I used the keys to unlock the door before stepping in. I ignored the bed springs squeaking as I went over to power up my computer, then pour some milk and Rice Krispies into a bowl my mom had purchased for us when we first arrived.

Once the clang of the metal spoon against the bowl drifted into their room, I heard Mike and Tanya cease their movements and gently whisper, the voices grew snappier until Mike eventually burst out of the room with a _what's your problem?_ Glare in his eyes. "Do you two want some cereal?" I asked innocently as I settled down into my desk chair.

He scoffed. "No, we do _not_ want cereal. Well done, Cullen. You have redeemed your title as official cock-blocker of the building." He shuffled over to the kitchen and switched on the kettle, prepping himself a cup of coffee. "We were nearing the two month mark before you had to fuck it up by walking in! Couldn't you have stayed at your sisters?"

I shook my head as I typed in my password: IsabellaMarieSwan. Yeah, as if no one would be able to guess that. "I needed to earn my duties back sometime," I teased lightly, clicking on the icon for Skyrim on my desktop. The screensaver that had been downloaded onto my computer was one of the dragons from my favourite game looking at the viewer, and in front of him was a girl elf dressed in purple clothes that left a lot of bare skin. I wondered what Bella would look like in something like that...

Unfortunately, my time fantasizing about Bella came to an end after three seconds when Mike stomped passed me. I looked up and saw that he had gulped down most of his beverage before he had even reached me. He hadn't even bothered to make one for his date, which proved that he had no respect at all for those who pleasured him, by that I mostly mean girls, apart from Bella-thank god. He had not conquered her mind so far, and for that I was grateful. And when I said 'so far', I was hoping for her never falling for his mindless tricks. She was smart enough to see past his barely charming looks and personality anyway.

"Now if you'll excuse me..." Mike declared, turning to me before he walked through the bedroom door and bowing, "I shall now return to my weekly gal." I came close to chuckling, but it never came. The way he regarded these people was absolutely appalling.

As I loaded up my latest save, my mind wandered to how Bella had dealt with the news of my 'new found feelings' for her. To be honest, in my mind I wanted her to be over the moon, overjoyed and any other synonyms for that feeling. But that wasn't so likely to be true. She could be repulsed; disgusted at this new discovery and bolt for the nearest exit anytime I appeared on the scene. Actually, when I think about it, that's what I had always done during College and High school, so I guess I deserved it. But somehow, the knowledge that Bella understands my unusual behaviour lightened up my outlook a little bit. Perhaps she likes me enough to want to go out with me, or at least talk to me for more than five seconds with more vocabulary than the words 'hi' and 'bye'.

Midway through my game play, the was a speedy knock at the door. Tanya had already evacuated-or had been kicked out- of the apartment, so it might have been her wanting more, but when Mike answered the door, there was almost silent mumbling. I recognised my roommates best flirty voice, but it didn't appear to be working on the mystery woman behind the wood of the door. _Good on her,_ I compliment mentally, returning to my quest. Sooner or later, the lock was slid back into place, and Mike strolled over to where I sat. He slammed his palm down on the desk, drawing my attention from the animated characters I had been battling.

"What do you want?" I questioned, wanting to get back to playing, but Mike came close to pressing the power button, which would effectively lose all of my work, so I sat still.

He smiled a little. "That was your sister, and she said that she wants me to plan a party for next week." He confessed. "I eventually gathered that after trying to lure her to my bed." I glared at him. I knew she was commonly known as a whore here, but she was still a member of my family. "Calm down, Cullen. Do you know why she was so intent on inviting Bella Swan to this get together?"

No, no, no, no, no, no. You'd think that would be enough, but no. My ever so cunning sibling was planning on forcing me and Bella on one another at this party. Why did she have to play match-maker now?

**Please review!**

**By the way, I don't have a beta as I don't like having to wait to post these to you guys, so sorry for any spelling/ grammar mistakes **


	4. Spin the Bottle

**BPOV**

I awoke on Monday morning to the annoying default alarm that had been set on my phone. Were any of those alarm tones _not_ annoying to wake up to?

I prepared myself for my first class of English by putting two slices of bread into the toaster. As I waited for them to toast, I grabbed some Nutella and butter along with a knife, before I went to get dressed. Although the people in this school were out to impress others with their fancy clothes, all I wore was a pair of skinny jeans and a loose brown top that almost hung off of one shoulder. Not so far that you could see the strap of my bra, but unfortunately far enough so the entire male population at Dartmouth would start uselessly asking me out... minus one.

Edward was still lingering in my mind whilst I spread the chocolaty loveliness onto the bread. In fact, he had been there since Rosalie informed me that he 'loved me'. Looking at myself, I couldn't see what there was to love. To anyone that doesn't know me well, I'm just a snobby popular kid who's always out for attention, when in reality, diving created this false skin for me. There was also my brown hair and eyes that weren't exactly a point of interest, so how could he even like me? The unintentionally popular girl with nothing good about her apart from her sport?

The school day passed uneventfully. My top did draw some unwanted attention from Mike and Tyler, which made me internally curse myself for putting on such an item. I knew this was going to happen this morning, so why couldn't I have just prevented it?

Whilst I strolled down the hot summer sidewalk towards my apartment building, I heard a familiar squeal from behind me. I turned to find Rose sprinting up to me as if she were a zombie on the rampage for brains. "Bellie! I have something to tell you!" I frowned at two things. One, she has said that so much over the weekend it was getting increasingly old, and two, where on earth did Bellie come from? I have never been nicknamed in my life, well, apart from the name Bella itself, but Rosalie doing brought me to confusion and suspicion. When she had eventually reached me, she was panting too much to talk. Stamina wasn't a strong point for her. We silently walked as her breathing slowed down into quiet breaths. "As I was saying, I have even more news for you."

I cocked my head up to meet her eyes and nodded, indicating that she should go on. "Well, I have decided that we all need a good party, but only close friends. So, I asked Mike to throw one! You have to come, and if you say no I will slap you in the face." Her threats had never been any less than that. "He's throwing it on Friday night at around six, which means you'll need to pop round to mine at about five so I can get you ready!"

I fought a groan. "I swear to god that if you put me into a skirt of any kind I will run away screaming." Whilst Rose was amazing at persuading people with threats, I was much less so. But, I would run away if she tried to make me show my legs. I'm just not that sort of person out of the water.

She rolled her violet eyes. "Don't worry. I can make you look just as delectable in torn up jeans and a plain t-shirt. Luckily for you, it isn't _my _standards that you have to live up to." My brow furrowed at her words.

"Whose standards do I need to live up to, then?" I asked, turning the key to my apartment building. Mondays called for Rose's tutor, which just happened to be me, so she stayed over up to about nine studying equations and Shakespeare before she left for home, so we only had a limited time to talk about this before we got our work finished. "Because if you try to set me up with Ben again..." She was already shaking her head before I had completed my sentence.

"It's not Ben." She clarified just as the door to my room opened. We launched ourselves onto my bed and brought out our books, ranging from textbooks to plays and literature. "Now, what were we doing last week? Oh right. _Oh Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo?"_ She quoted perfectly after all the practising we had gone through. But before we could go through with the hours of convincing her that both Romeo and Juliet were naive to have done what they done, I needed to know who I was going to face at Mike's party.

"Who are you setting me up with if it's not Ben?" I questioned. She smirked and shook her head at me. Oh well, I was just going to have to guess. "Tyler? Eric? Mike?" I added, but for each of them I got a no. "Please tell me it's not that creepy guy Aro who moved here from Italy." Rose had been trying to get me with him because my name was Italian and he was from Italy, but it would never work. Thankfully, he only had eyes for Jane, so I was safe. My mind rapidly sifted through every name of the boys in the College, and then those back at home, which only included Jacob, a sixteen year old. After five minutes, I mentally screamed Eureka, but then regretted it. I gulped. "How about your brother?" I managed to get out.

Her face brightened and she sarcastically clapped. "Well done, Swan. You figured out my evil plan." She giggled and lifted her hands in fake surrender when she saw my glare being stabbed at her. "He basically admitted everything he felt to me, although he was sort of pissed that I told you anything." Of course he was. You shared his potentially deepest secret with the one person who would make it worse. "He's too scared to ask you out himself, so I'm going to help him a little bit." She smiled at me knowingly, freaking me out.

The week passed slowly. In each lesson I stared up at the clock, begging for the big hand to move faster, and finally reach the time when the bells ring and I get at least a five minute break for my intense headaches. I was worrying about the party at the end of the week, and having Edward in my classes didn't exactly make my head pain free. He still sat in his usual seat, but kept his eyes constantly averted from mine. His habits hadn't changed much, apart from the fact that he was nothing more than a blur as he left the room when the bell sounded. It was obvious that he didn't want to speak to me, or maybe even look at me.

Maybe what Rose had said was wrong. Maybe she was just trying to raise my hopes for this before she dropped the bomb shell telling me that it was all lies. Edward could hate me and his sister for planning all of this to just leave me without any real friends.

Sooner rather than later though, the night of one of the casual 'get-togethers' arrived. Rosalie had practically dragged me from my comfortable place in front of the TV to let her play Bella Barbie in her apartment. When I walked out of there, physically unscathed yet emotionally scarred, I felt partly pretty, but still nervous as we trudged toward the source of the booming music that echoed throughout the halls.

**EPOV**

"Fill that bowl with the vodka and cranberry juice will ya?" Mike ordered, pointing toward what I would call a punch bowl. Surely after this beverage was put in, my roommate would be the one to spike it, leading all the girls on campus to their dooms. That might be putting it too strongly, but a night with Mike is a fate worse than death from what I've heard.

I nodded and muttered something incoherently as I poured the mixture into the bowl, filling it close to the brim with the red rimmed cups stacked around it. Our kitchen counter was filled with clutter such as multiple crisp packets and drinks, but it was all just a set-up. This was in case the police got involved and needed to be persuaded that this had nothing to do with getting drunk and having sex. Of course, if that did happen, the Vodka and cranberry juice would be wasted down the drain.

Bella was invited to this, and I was scared. I knew that Rose had planned more than what she had told me, and I was anxious yet hesitant to know what it was. As the clock chimed five minutes to six, Mike blasted his best songs from the speakers he had moved in from his room, obviously bought by his parents. He started with _R.I.P _by Rita Ora to start all the early comers off, whilst I sat at my desk chair and switched on my PC. Yeah, I wasn't going to take part in this if they paid me. Skyrim was basically a safe haven for me to escape the cruel realities of my roommate.

People bustled in through the doors, heading straight for the booze and ignoring me where I sat. Surely enough, Tanya was here, but instead of hanging out with her friends, she clung to Mike like a safety harness. I felt sorry for her. She could have wanted a stable relationship with him, with flowers on anniversaries and birthdays, and maybe the odd poem. But even I was afraid to tell her that none of that would arrive since who she was clinging to was a complete bastard who cared less about others feelings than he did for grades.

Just as the party got into full swing, the door opened once more, and a familiar charge of energy pulsed through the room. I spun around to see Bella standing shyly behind my sister who smiled at me as I took in her guest, and the love of my life.

Even in the slim black sweatpants and loose top Rose had shoved her in, Bella looked gorgeous. That top was the same top that she had presented the other day, the one that attracted more boys than a strip club and it annoyed me. She wasn't mine to be possessive of, but god I wanted her to be. The loud music around us ruined my staring a little, but it was as if she knew I wanted to watch. She tried to keep away from people who were bopping to the music, keeping herself in my view. When she turned to look at me, I swiftly looked back at my screen, hoping that I hadn't been caught.

Half way through the fifteenth song, Mike drew everyone's attention to him as he stood on top of the couch between two couples making out. He cleared his throat. "Now everyone in the kitchen in a circle! We're playing spin the bottle!" People cheered within the crowd but Bella's face was pale. She couldn't kiss another guy. At least not in front of me. I had a perfect view of the kitchen from where I sat, so I guessed that Rose had planned this all along. Everyone walked into the spacious kitchen, complementing Mike on how he got his parents to buy him this apartment, but my eyes were on Bella. _Stop,_ I begged internally,_ I love you, don't do this._

Unfortunately, Rose pushed her along, grinning at me behind Bella's back. I scowled, gesturing that she as good as dead if she forced Bella through this. She looked at me innocently before sitting down on the tiled floor of the kitchen. Mike began to explain the rules.

"Okay, just so we have this clear. Someone spins the bottle I have here," He waved his hand to the empty Coke bottle in his hand, "And whoever it lands on is the one you need to kiss. If any of you have someone special you want to kiss, get the guts already and tell them before playing. Any cheating to get that person and I will send you for seven minutes in heaven with the likes of my roommate." I snorted at that punishment as others chuckled. "So, who's first?"

**I hoped you liked it!**

**Reviews are almost as good as having my own jealous Geekward... Okay, not that good, but close enough. I want you guys to get up to at least 25! I'm greedy, I know. But review encourage me to write on and forget about the terrors that school brings. Nearly the end of term now XD**


	5. Stupid

**EPOV**

Thank god Jessica had agreed to go first, but Bella was still unmoving from her spot on the tiles. _Get up,_ I begged her, hoping that in some sort of telepathic way she would hear me. _Don't let Rose make you do this. Please_. Unfortunately, we have yet to discover how to transfer thoughts, so she remained still, and my scowl stayed imprinted on my face. Somehow, Rose's sadistic mind seemed to find my agony funny, so as she got up to go to the toilet, I saw the grin on her face. I glared at her until she was out of my sight before returning my interest to Bella.

"Jessica and Malik have been, and so have Tyler and Lucy. Now, who wants the next go?" I heard a little click from behind me, but I assumed that it was just a door closing, so it didn't keep my attention for long. Mike's gaze sifted through the crowd until they stopped at someone, and his lips pulled up into a sly smile. "How about Bella over there?"

I was frozen. Bella balked at the sound of her name, and I could see that she was freaking out inside. The tell-tale sign of her tucking a few strands of glossy hair behind her ear indicated that she was nervous. She nodded and Mike grinned. Without having to take a second to guess, I could tell that he was hoping for the next spin of the bottle to land on him. I can't let this happen. There was no guy in here that I would be okay for her to kiss. Alright, I admit that's a _little _bias seeming that I loved the girl, but the boys in here were all duplicates of Quagmire from _Family Guy._ Sex addicts that were predictable and persistent. I lightly considered entering the group, hoping that the bottle would land on my, but a large crash from the bathroom stopped me in my tracks.

"Crap!" Rosalie muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Um, Mike? Do you believe that if you smash a mirror you really get seven years of bad luck?"

Mike frowned along with everyone else. "What did you do, Rosie?"

"I may of accidently made the mirror fall down and break into a million pieces." Mike groaned at her confession and told his best friend to carry on with the game whilst he checked the bathroom out. I glanced back at the crowd to see that Bella had slipped away toward the couch, and she had taken refuge behind one of the oversized pillows there, hoping to not be seen. Tyler tried to continue the game, but Bella's absence took some of the fun out of that go. He sulked as he played with the others, but who cared if he didn't get the chance to kiss Bella?

The game carried on as Mike almost screamed at my sister, but all of that disappeared for me. I scanned through the quests I had due on my computer screen, and quickly peeked over at Bella who still sat on the scarlet couch. She had relaxed in the cushions when she had realised that Tyler hadn't bothered to get up and find her, and as I stared at her appearance through the strands of my messy bronze hair, I couldn't help but bask in her beauty. Her cheeks were slightly pink from her close encounter with the hell that I knew she dreaded. Inside, she wasn't the girlie, stuck-up and in your face girl everyone saw her to be. Other girls hated her for taking away their attention from boys, and guys just wanted fun for the night so that they could say the next morning that they 'conquered' her.

But they were all wrong. She was a beautiful, smart and kind woman that deserved to have anything she wanted in life. And from everything that I have gathered from observing her at every opportunity that I had, this wasn't what she desired. As the thought crossed my mind, her doe eyes lifted from the ground and set on me. Luckily, I had turned so she wouldn't notice my ogling, but I could have sworn that I heard her sigh in an emotion that was hard to identify exactly. Frustration? Or possibly longing? I sighed to myself as I wished that I could become a mind reader. The power of telepathy would finally give me access to Bella's fascinating thoughts, and she wouldn't be so much of a mystery.

Rosalie walked out of the bathroom a few minutes later, a smug smile on her face. She stalked over to me, keeping quiet so the others wouldn't here before she whispered, "I made you panic, didn't I?" Suddenly it all made sense. She was going to torture me into asking Bella out. I shook my head in denial. I couldn't lose to her. She giggled at my lie. I had never been that good of a liar, even if I didn't speak. "_Sure _I didn't. Now budge, I want to login to Facebook."

My eyes widened. "You're not allowed on my computer," I stated slowly, trying to decipher what she was actually trying to achieve. She knew that no one touched my computer, so she had never asked to go on it at any time.

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Calm down. Now stop getting so touchy about it and let me on there for at least five minutes." She unleashed her puppy dog eyes that had no effect on me after all these years, but she only pulled them on me if she was desperate. I groaned in frustration but stood up, closing Skyrim before opening the internet. She beamed at me and chimed, "Thanks," before taking over the second most precious thing to me in the world.

I scanned the room, searching for something else to do until Rose was done, and my eyes shifted to the couch where Bella sat, staring at me. Blush crept onto my cheeks, one of the reasons why I was so unpopular. My nerdiness combined with the apparently 'cute' blush that never left made me that guy I was today. Shy and unconfident. I turned back to Rose, hoping that she had finished with what she was doing in lightning quick speed, but she was still on the login screen. She smiled and waved a hand over to Bella, telling me to go over to her.

My eyes bugged out of my sockets and I shook my head, the need to cower and hide seeping in. The love of my life was on the couch, and my sister was trying to get me to talk to her. You may not understand this, but to me, this was worse than having to perform a speech to the world. What if I messed it up? What if I stutter and she thinks I'm an idiot? What if-

"Edward," Rose hissed, breaking me out of my meltdown. "Stop over-thinking it. Now get over there, and talk to her before I have to shove you over there." She demanded, giving me a little warning push. I gulped and swirled around to see Bella looking at me, but when she saw me turning around, she blushed and her eyes drifted down to the cushion that she hugged to her chest. I stood still; willing myself to move yet my limbs wouldn't budge. Rose poked me in the back repeatedly, urging me forward. I tried to ignore it, but sooner or later that spot began becoming numb with the pain of her sharp nails so I moved.

Bella's eyes widened, but she remained frozen in her place. I took a deep breath and sat down next to her, curling my legs into my chest and wrapping my arms around them. Well, this ought to be an awkward situation. I had had enough of them in my lifetime, but this one was sure to be the worst. "Hi." _What the hell? 'Hi'? Is that all you could come up with? _I internally groaned, but Bella didn't seem too bothered by my simple greeting.

"Hey," She replied, peeking up from the cushion. "So, I guess that none of this was your idea?" She asked, gesturing toward the Spin the bottle game that I had forgotten was still going on. I shook my head and ran a hand through my unruly hair. She cleared her throat and said what we were both thinking. "Look, we both know what Rose told me, so can we just pretend that it never happened? Start again? Maybe it might make this a little less... awkward."

I nodded in agreement and she smiled, lighting up her entire face. She pulled out her hand from her lap and jutted it toward mine. "Hi, I'm Bella." I couldn't hide my smile as she reintroduced herself. Surely enough, if I were meeting her again for the first time directly, I wouldn't be able to comprehend what she was saying throughout all of my staring. The first time I saw her and learned her name was from afar, so there were no embarrassing moments at that point in time.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Edward. Not Eddie, not Eduardo. Edward." She laughed at my restrictions and I smiled at the sound when she couldn't see. A simple giggle from her was so beautiful; it would put song birds to shame.

We talked for about three minutes, talking about how we both didn't want to be at this party and how both Rose and Mike had forced us to attend. I realised that it was actually easy to talk to her, but then the nervousness crept in. I felt myself shaking, and beads of sweat ran down the back of my neck. I finally figured out what I was doing and I felt the need to run, so naturally, I went with my instincts and fled.

" I... Uh... I need to go." I stuttered, rising from the couch and speed walking into my bedroom, ignoring the crowds of people that sat in front of my bedroom door as they all talked about playing Seven minutes in heaven. I mentally prayed that Bella wouldn't take part as I stepped into my room, the walls coated in posters ranging from Skyrim to the likes of Star Wars. I fell onto my bed after locking my door and pounded my head with my hands at my idiocy. Now she must think that I'm just a messed up nerd that's not even brave enough to talk to her without being partly aware of what's happening.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." I mumbled, lying back against my pillow. I had just messed up my only chance of getting Bella to like me. Okay, Rose would probably force me into another one of those situations, but what had just happened would affect how she felt about me for as long as she knows me.

I laid there staring at the ceiling for about an hour, brooding, I guessed you could call it. There was a light tap on my door, the music and everyone else had left about twenty minutes earlier, so I assumed it would be Mike, though he never bothers to knock, even if the door is locked. I glanced over at my alarm clock which told me it was five minutes past one, so I groaned and rubbed my eyes under my glasses before getting up and answering the door. Once it was opened, Rosalie burst into my room, shoving me back onto my bed. "You're an idiot, you know that?" She almost shrieked.

I cringed. "What did I do apart from embarrass myself in front of the girl I love?" I asked quietly as I burrowed my face into my pillow.

She groaned. "Bella's back in that apartment crying because she thinks that you hate her!" My ears perked up at this new information. I made her cry? I wasn't supposed to make her cry. My heart clenched in my chest, and I felt like crying myself.

"Is Mike in the house?" She said that he had left to go to Lauren's house for the night, so I was free to talk without being overheard. "You know I don't hate her! Why didn't you tell her that?"

She rolled her eyes at me as if she was saying 'duh'. "Of course I told her that! But she argued with me saying that when you realised that you were talking to her, you were disgusted with yourself. It all projected onto your face apparently." My face dropped into my hands, but that wasn't the worse that Rose had to say. "And I have a plan to get her to finally figure out what you mean to her."

And with that, she walked out of the room.

**This was a really hard chapter to write since I don't like Edward and Bella being apart for too long. But nothing to fear! Rose will fix everything!**

**Please review! WE didn't reach 25 last time **** But I really wanted to post this, so you guys are lucky :p**


	6. Bus Ride

**BPOV**

I couldn't fully comprehend what was happening in my life right now. Edward supposedly loves me, but when he eventually figured out that he was talking to me, he left. Ran away like a deer that heard the bang of a gun. I could see the realisation on his face; his eyes widened in what seemed to me to be disgust, and his hands had balled up into fists. From what I could tell, he absolutely hated me.

Ever since we had gotten home that night, Rose was constantly trying to convince me that he was madly in love with me and would surely kill himself if I left, but I was sure that she was exaggerating. She may have wanted to play cupid for the two of us, but she had yet to bag herself a boyfriend. Oh yeah, she wanted one, but all the guys she seemed to meet were only in it for one thing, or they were nothing like her type. I didn't particularly want to be a part of her crazy hare-brained experiment anymore, but I didn't have much of a choice. Rose was resilient and persistent, so nothing short of a tank could stop her.

The day after the disaster of a party, I stayed in my apartment eating ice cream and watching TV. Really, I shouldn't be eating without exercising as it could be bad for my diving, and I should be studying, but why bother? It was Saturday and I had nothing else to do on most other nights apart from revise on past and future lessons. And chocolate ice cream was my comfort food. It was a bad solution, but if bad things happen in my life, I turn to the help of Ben and Jerry's or to just a store brand pot of frozen goodness.

At around eleven in the morning on my relaxing Saturday, Rosalie started banging on my door. Groaning, I unwillingly rose from the warmth of my duvet covered couch and trudged to answer the repetitive calls of my sort-of best friend. When I unlocked the door, she burst in, pushing the door so hard that it barely missed hitting my face. For the occasion of torturing me this time, she had her normally straight hair wrapped into curls at the bottom, and she wore short-shorts and an almost see-through top. She eyed me up and down when I closed the door, taking in my appearance of messy hair and pyjamas. She raised an eyebrow.

"What happened to you?" She asked, her gaze had started scanning the room. "Usually you would have been up and ready by now. What changed?"

I sighed and returned to my makeshift sanctuary of blankets and sweet stuff. "After yesterday, I'm kinda depressed. My eyes still sting a little from my sobbing fest." I told her, gesturing to all of the discarded tissues scattered around me. I had forgotten to pick them up. Note to self: Clean up is desperately needed.

She shook her head, before she strutted over to the kitchen so she could prepare the kettle for boiling. "Yeah, I talked to Edward about that," I bit my lip as she mentioned his name, but she didn't notice, "When I went in to talk to him, he was pretty punch mentally beating himself up about the whole thing. Then I told him that you were upset and I'm sure that he went on another spiral of madness as I left." She shrugged and poured the freshly boiled water in a mug along with crushed coffee beans. The aroma floating from the mug made me have a weird, at peace feeling. It reminded me of home where my parents were.

Another note to self: Call mom and dad within the next week.

"Did you tell him that I was crying?" If she had, I wouldn't be able to show my face around him ever again. Perhaps he just snorted and waved Rose off, saying that he didn't care. I rarely ever cried, so Edward was bringing out my emotional side, and it was really annoying. Rose handed me the mug of coffee and I sipped at the still boiling hot mixture. She sat down next to me in full discussion mode.

Her eyebrows furrowed as her mind returned to my question. "Well. I sort of told him that you were crying," I buried my face into my hands, but she continued, "Then he exploded and told me to make sure you knew that he could never hate you and yadda yadda yadda." Through the gaps between my fingers, I saw her peering down at her hands to check her nails, but then her face brightened as a new thought came rushing in.

"Oh, and diverting from the subject of the whereabouts of your happiness, we're all going to the Eclipse night club next week," She performed a quick 'jazz hands' gesture. "So we need to go shopping at some point during the week. Oh! I know the perfect dress for you! We just need to get there quick enough so that no one else takes it."

I shook my head rapidly. "Do we really _need_ to go? You know how I hate clubs." They were packed with people who added to the heat in those cramped spaces, and there were drunken people surrounding you as they attempted to find a date. It didn't sound so bad to some, but to me, night clubs were just deafening excuses to drink. "And how I hate shopping."

"You do know that there is no way out of this, right? Ever since the semester started, you've been the girl who just goes home and stays there until school starts again. Now it's almost summer and you're _still_ the creepy lady who hates the outdoors," I chuckled slightly at her example, "So, you are going to go out there and have some fun before running back to Forks for our break." I sighed in annoyance, but I could see reason in her mini speech.

She noticed my weakness and smiled smugly. "Meet me on Wednesday at about four at my apartment so we can go and get that dress." She left after that, finishing her persuasion and leaving me on my own.

There was no getting out of this now.

**EPOV**

I was sat on a bus toward my parents' hotel which was quite near to our college, but too far to walk. I had to visit them sometime, and usually some sort of heartbreak was a good enough reason. My mom always knew what to do, and she would give me advice even if it meant interrupting her weekend alone with my father.

My parents were eccentric. They flew or drove to new places every month and stayed there for about a week which is when they tend to get bored of it. This month, they had taken refuge closer to me and Rose in case we needed anything during this one week. Thankfully, they arrived here only yesterday, so I had plenty of time to talk to them.

Sitting on the front seats of the bus were Mike and Ben, supposedly making their way to a party for tonight. They had yet to notice me hiding within the backseats as they talked loudly, their voices exploding throughout the bus, annoying everyone else aboard. "Have you befriended her yet?" Ben asked, holding out his phone for Mike to see. Whatever was there caused Mike's eyes to widen.

"I've tried about fifty times! She can be a stubborn bitch when she wants to be." He muttered. Why haven't they been kicked off yet? "I guess she knows that I'm just going to stalk her on Facebook if she accepted." He smiled slyly. "How did you get her to accept you, though? Did you bribe her?"

Ben shook his head as he tried to hold in his laughs. "Nope. I guess that Bella Swan thinks that I'm worthy of being her virtual friend." Wait, they were talking about my Bella? I mean, just Bella, she's not mine. Even though I have no right to call her my own, jealousy still pulsed through me as I considered what Mike and Ben were talking about. There were multiple reasons why I detested my roommate and his friends. They disrespected women at every possible opportunity, for example, they called the love of my life a _bitch_. The very word being aimed at Bella made me want to launch my fist into Mike's face, even though I had no chance of getting away after his nose started to bleed.

I decide to ignore the rest of their conversation, but I accidently over hear them saying that they were going to win the impossible Isabella Swan one way or another. I mentally snorted. _Yeah, right that was going to happen, _I thought determinedly. If I never tried hard enough to earn the unconditional love from Bella, she was bound to end up with some low-life like the two I constantly glared daggers at. _Yeah, right that was going to happen, _I mentally repeated,_ she's mine._

When I reached the fancy hotel my parents were staying at, I was greeted by said parents making out in the elevator. I had found their room number, but when the door opened, that was what I was forced to see. I shuddered and covered my eyes with my hands whilst they figured out that the doors had opened. "Oh, Edward! I didn't expect to see you here!" My mother chimed. I heard her untangling herself from my father, Carlisle, as he cleared his throat at the embarrassing encounter. "What a pleasant surprise."

I removed my hands from my face, giving me back my sight. "Well, actually, I need to talk to you," I informed Esme as I lightly shifted my feet against the carpet. "Is there any possibility that we can talk in your room, or..." My absurd mother cut me off, blush already taking over her face.

"Of course, dear. I was just seeing Carlisle down so he could go out shopping. Surprisingly, room service doesn't offer pepperoni pizza, and you know it's my favourite," She pouted. When I briefly turned around, I could see that others wanted to enter the lift, so after mom and dad said their prolonged goodbyes, I practically shoved her inside, allowing the patiently waiting strangers to finally access the only transport upstairs that didn't require exercise. I say patient, but when the button was pressed and we were going up, one of the men aboard whispered '_About time the hag stopped talking.'_

We eventually reached room 877 after mom staggered through the corridors. Surely enough, she was drunk, and had trouble getting the key into the keyhole to open the door. I sighed and done it for her, and we both walked in. She plopped down onto their king sized bed, and I sat in an armchair opposite her.

"Okay," mom started, "What do you need to talk to me about?"

"Um... It's actually about Bella..." I trailed off and covered my ears as she screamed a scream that could only be heard by dogs. She had always been an enthusiast with me going out with Bella, and I guessed that she was delighted that something had happened with her. Once she was done, I continued. "I made a huge mistake and I was wondering if you knew what I should do."

"Well I need to know what happened first, silly!" She hiccupped. I explained everything that had occurred between up within the past couple of weeks in great detail, knowing that she'll probably forget all of this soon if she were truly drunk out of her mind. Even when intoxicated, though, she usually gave brilliant advice. "Well it seems that you will have to apologise first," She stated, pulling herself up to prepare herself a drink. "From what you have told me, Bella's going to be hurt, and knowing her, anything that Rose tells her won't convince her that you love her. Just explain why you ran."

After that, we talked for a little longer until I had to leave. Tomorrow, I had homework to do since I had spent too much time playing on my computer that week. On the bus ride home, there was no banter between Mike and Ben because they weren't on their way back to campus yet, so I rode in silence, gazing up at the sky as the sun slowly set behind the clouds.

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**Please review! Lately, I haven't gotten that much, so encouragement would be wonderful!**


	7. Shy

**BPOV**

After everything that had happened at the party and me finding out about Edward's feelings towards me, he's become more and more distant.

He won't even _look_ at me, let alone speak to me. Throughout Monday, Tuesday and today, I didn't catch a glance. Rosalie is yet again trying to convince me that it's just weird for him that I know his secret, but I'm suspecting that it was pure hate which drove him to ignore me. It made sense for him to be angry at Rose for sharing what she did, and to me for knowing, but did he have to be so conspicuous about it?

Today was the day that I was being forced to go shopping for a trip to a night club that I didn't even want to go to. Rose was bustling around me, gushing about the dress that she thought would be perfect as we walked into school and straight into Edward. His cute black framed glasses prevented me from seeing his eyes from the angle I was looking from, but I could tell that he knew I was here. He bolted, stalking out of the room with tinted blush on his face, but not the embarrassed blush. No, from what I could tell, the blush was caused by anger. Rose seemed not to notice, but it was all I could concentrate on.

When we sat down for our English lesson, I ripped out a small piece of paper from my notebook and scribbled something for Rose:

_**Did you notice Edward earlier?**_

She smiled at what I had written before writing something in her elegant script that made my common sprawl look like dirt.

_How could I not? Isn't it cute? He's been like this all week!_

_**What are you talking about, cute? He's avoided me like the plague! **_

_You obviously haven't seen how he looks over to you until you look up and his eyes dart away faster than anyone can blink!_

I frowned. No, I hadn't noticed that, but I'm sure that I would normally.

_**Are you sure?**_

_Bella, I'm his sister. I know these things. When you walk in, he blushes and tries to escape when he sees you so he can't embarrass himself more than he already has in front of you. And have you not realised that he's planted himself and his friends closer to our table at lunch? He's just as far away so you won't see him staring, but close enough that he can hear your voice. And when you look at him, his face goes bright pink and he looks down. Now if you ask me, that's cute!_

When I really thought about it, I did realise that he had moved from his previous table at the corner of the cafeteria, but could he really be staring at me? Usually, I would get that chill-up-the-spine sort of feeling when I feel someone's gaze on me, but how could I not know that he was looking at me? I thought back to the times we sat down to lunch since the party, and he seemed to never even peer over at me. I had to ask again.

_**Are you 100% sure?**_

Rose let out a frustrated groan before rapidly scribbling on the piece of paper again.

_Yes I'm sure! Okay, at lunch, keep your eyes open and try to spot the signs. The guy fucking loves you, for god's sake! Why can you not see that? You'll realise sooner or later. Oh! And we need to go to the shops after school!_

I could have lived happily without that reminder.

At lunch, I decided to test out Rose's theory as she had suggested. We sat at our table which was yet again surrounded by the likes of Mike and Tyler, and I scanned the nearest table. Edward was already perched there with his two gamer friends Finn and Simon, munching away at the apple in his hand. He seemed distracted, but he ignored me and chatted to his friends about the cheat code to get ever item in the game Skyrim. _Again_. I was pulled into a conversation with Ben so I had to unwillingly drag my gaze over to him instead of Edward.

"Do you think you could befriend Mike on Facebook? I mean, he's doesn't come up with great posts that are worth looking into, but he really wants to talk to you online instead of just trying to get you away from Rose at lunchtimes and after diving." Mike had sent me about ten requests in the past month, and I denied all of them, but he was still not getting the message. I briefly considered accepting, but that was pushed away when I realised what that would entail. About five minutes of typing to each other before I finally blocked him.

"Sorry, I don't need any more virtual friends." I answered in a quiet mumble as I lifted my fork with a chip hooked on the end of it. My eyes shifted to where Edward sat, and I saw his own dart away quickly, and an almost undetectable pink blush invading his skin. _Caught you._

"Are you sure?" I had heard more than enough of those words for the day.

I let my head drop into my hands and I rubbed my temples with my fingers, trying to erase all memories that I was here talking to this creep. "What's Mike paying you to convince me?"

He frowned but I still knew that I had figured out his fiendish plan. He didn't answer, but before I could call him on it, Rosalie poked me in the side. "Look now." She stage whispered, obviously not worrying about anyone around us hearing her. I forced my head from my hands and glanced over to what she was talking about.

It was Edward glaring at his friends, his face was almost tomato red with anger and he was practically shaking. His friend, Simon from the looks of it, was trying to reason with him, gesturing that what he was saying was right, but Edward wouldn't have anything to do with it. He ditched his meal and stormed toward the door of the cafeteria, which earned a few 'oohs' from everyone else in the room apart from me and Rose. What had they tried to tell him that made him so mad?

Just before Edward walked out, he looked back at me with his glare still in place, and then he was gone.

My mouth was gaped open as Mike and Jessica went back to talking. Could that argument have had anything to do with me? Oh, well done Bella. You've drawn his friends away from him and he hates you.

I looked over at Rose to see that her face was contorted with anger. She felt my stare and turned. "What the hell did they say?" She asked even though she knew that we couldn't have heard them from where we were sat. They were speaking in hushed whispers, so none of it was audible for either of us. Without Edward there, Simon and Finn discussed almost silently what had just occurred, before nodding, standing up and strolling to the opposite door.

I shrugged. "All I know is that he glared at me before he left," I mumbled, but Rose didn't look too convinced. She stood up quickly from her seat which pushed it back a few steps, and grabbed a hold of my arm, lifting me up with her. "What are you doing?"

She started leading me toward the door the two other nerds had gone through before she spoke. "Edward has never lashed out on anyone in public. He's normally calm. Somehow, Simon and Finn done something to aggravate him, and I don't think it had anything to do with Skyrim or Minecraft." By this time, we were out of the door and Rose was stalking to Simon and Finn who were leaning against their lockers as they read something in a game manual.

Rose stomped right up to them and basically shoved Finn into the metal, creating a huge smash. "What did you tell him?" She demanded, staring him down.

He cowered. His eyes flickered over to me as Edward's had and he gulped. I was about to tell Rosalie to calm down but he spoke up before I could. "Can we talk about this in private?" He wasn't too good at hiding his glances over to me and Rose caught onto it right away and shook her head at his request. It took him a few seconds, but he finally gave us an answer. "We simply suggested that he stop obsessing over... Well, _her._" He gestured over to me. "He never plays the Elder Scrolls anymore since she started noticing him more. So, we tried to slowly wedge him off of her." He was about to say more, but Rose cut him off.

"You have no control over what he cares about, and I happen to know that he loves this girl. Now, you're going to go and tell him that he should man up already and ask her out! Do you understand?" He hesitated for a second before nodding. She let him drop to the ground, and he scrambled away. She turned to me and made a 'taa-da' type gesture, before she yet again led me away. "Now all we have to focus on is getting your dress and surviving the rest of the week."

What had just happened?

**EPOV**

I couldn't believe those two. How could they even consider me forgetting about Bella? That was like saying make the cows of the world hover in mid-air.

They told me that it would be _healthy _to ignore her for awhile. Although I knew my feelings for her didn't appear exactly healthy to everyone else, there was no way I could erase the best thing in my existence. Bella was the one thing that held me to the Earth-she had relieved gravity of that job. Why couldn't my only friends see that?

After I exploded and escaped the cafeteria, I headed toward my next class, which I had with Bella. She must have seen what happened since she was sitting right next to our table, but what would her reaction be to me in class? Perhaps I would just have to sit there and sneak stares at her like normal as I hid behind the curtain of my unruly long hair. It worked most of the time.

I rested against the lockers that were planted outside the classroom as I waited for the bell to go. About ten minutes into my silent thoughts alone, I spied Simon and Finn- my previous friends- walking up to me. Their faces were painted with fear and hesitation, but they eventually made it and cleared their throats. Finn was the first to speak. "Look, we just want to say that we're sorry about what we said earlier," He apologised, looking down at the ground. He nudged Simon to go on. This gesture made them less believable and I began to think that somehow Rose forced them into this. It wouldn't be the first time that she scared the shit out of nerds.

"After some thought, we've come to the conclusion that you need to ask this girl out," Simon choked through his braces. "If she's changed you this much, then she might be the one for you."

I was still suspicious, but I decided to let them off the hook. Being put on the spot was hard for those who had such little confidence like us, so I thanked them just in time for the beeping of the bell to burst through the school. I walked in quickly and sat down, taking out my books and awaiting Bella's arrival as I normally did. Simon and Finn didn't deserve to get off so easily. Their words were blasphemy as they spoke about their feelings regarding the love of my life, and it was something I could never forgive them for. But, like most people, I wouldn't let that grudge stop us from talking and playing Skyrim together.

The students bustled in through the small doorway, but my eyes were hooked onto a certain brunette that owned my heart. Now, I just needed to get through today without Bella noticing my sideways glances.

**I hoped you liked it! Please tell me which pov you like! The poll should be up now!**


	8. Eclipse

**EPOV**

It's Friday, yet again. And as I woke up in the morning, my first thought was how I messed everything up with Bella only a week before. I haven't talked to her since that dreadful evening when I had given her the impression that I hated her, but I was sure Rose was determined to change all of that. I could feel that she was plotting our reunion. The only evidence I had throughout the week was that she was going to force me and Bella together at a night club.

She told me to meet her at her apartment at around five so she could reveal Bella's new outfit and then drag us to a popular night club named Eclipse. I was to just wear the most casual thing I had, which seemed to only be jeans and a button t-shirt, that would have to suffer the downfall of my glasses and messy hair. Fortunately, Rosalie said that they were good enough for this place, so I was saved from the foretold shopping trip.

The day went by normally. I stared at Bella and her beauty until she turned around and almost caught me in the act a few times, and I whizzed through my lessons. The only thing that was important during the day apart from memorizing the love of my life was the fact that the sleazebag I lived with tried to ask her out. Okay, for him, it wasn't _tried._ He full out asked her to join him to yet another party tonight, and it was whilst we were in Biology together.

We were seated at our desk as per usual. I was glancing at her through my hair and she was doodling on her notebook. Then Mike swaggered over with Tyler, Eric and Ben in tow to watch the show as he attempted to take out the most amazing girl on campus, and perhaps the whole world.

"Hey, Bella," He greeted as he leaned onto the desk to zoom up on her face with a sly smile on his own. Luckily, she backed up a lot so that there was almost a metre between them, but Mike couldn't handle distance, so he moved forward again. "I was wondering if you would like to go out with me tonight. Eric's parents are in Las Vegas for the week, so his condo is free to party." Eric is another one of the lucky ones with parents who spill all of their funds on their kids. But at least he couldn't have too much fun at college because he lived with his parents.

Bella frowned and drew her attention back to the paper on the desk. "Mike, I told you a few weeks ago after diving that no matter how often you ask me, I will never say yes." She spat out, making me increasingly proud.

Mike rolled his eyes. "You know you want to. You don't want to hang out with geeks like this," He nodded his head toward me, "All your life, do you?" I growled silently. I would rather she would. That would mean that one of my fantasies would come true. The rest of forever with Bella was something that I wanted badly.

"Go and snog Jessica, Mike." Bella retorted, snapping her book shut as the professor came in. "Maybe she'll fall for your amateur charms." The look on Michael's face was comical as he stormed back to his seat. I had to hold in my chuckle and pretend that I didn't witness what had just happened, but it was taking its toll.

After I prepared myself for the night club, I quickly combed through my hair hoping to conquer the disarray that was there, but no such luck. I eventually gave up and debated on whether or not to put in contacts, but then I concluded that I hated them. To put them in you have to touch your eyeball, and it just seemed too freaky for me to do. So, I spent the last hour until five playing Skyrim, completing a quest for a merchant in Solitude, the capital city in Skyrim.

As I played and explored, I wondered what life would be like to live in a world with an assigned route through your existence. Of course, this role-playing game had multiple paths for you to follow, but to live the perfect life would be an interesting experience. In this game, you are immediately crowned the most important person in the world, with the power to speak the voice of Dragons with fluency and ease. In reality, you start out as a nobody unless you are born into any royal family or you are the child of a celebrity, but you're still empty inside until you find yourself.

I had found myself in Bella, as others have found themselves in their other halves. Some were completed by their passion, but what I wondered was if it was chosen for you the moment you were born. The Night mother in the previous game in the Elder scrolls was the leader of the Black Hand, a bunch of people that basically killed people for anyone who paid them. The whole cult including the leader (The Night mother) followed the rules from a void that they named Sithis.

The Night mother said once in the game_ 'You were marked by Sithis the moment you emerged from your mother's womb.'_ I knew that these were just the words of a programmer that created the game, but the words still had some meaning in them. To me, it tells that you were given a certain aim in life the second that you entered the world, and from what I understood, my aim was Bella.

At about five minutes to five, I locked the door to my apartment and hopped downstairs to Rose's place. After three knocks, my distressed sister yanked the door open with a smile plastered on her face. "Go and sit on the couch and I'll be right back!" She was already dressed in a scarlet red dress without straps and her hair was up in a bun. I shook my head but sat and watched her skip away to finish whatever torture she was dealing to Bella.

If there was one thing that I knew about my sister, it was that she loved overdoing things. Tonight, she was dressed in formal attire for a sleazy night club full of drunks.

I stared up at the clock, listening to every distinct tick it let out until I heard light footsteps approaching from the hallway. I turned my head toward the sound, and my mouth fell open as my jaw simultaneously hit the floor.

Rose had put Bella into a short, one strap dress that barely even reached her thighs. The material was caked in purple and the only strap that existed had sort of golden beads embedded onto it. Bella's hair was styled into a beautiful ponytail that left some hair to conceal part of her face, and she was forced into black high heels. I knew that she _hated_ high heels, but even the fact that she probably hated wearing them didn't stop me from wanting to kiss her senseless in the moment.

Rosalie grinned and waved her arm over her masterpiece. "What do you think?"

I gulped as I tried to conjure a sentence. "I...er...you...amazing." I stuttered. Rose's grin turned smug as she realised my weakness and grabbed Bella's hand to lead her to the door.

"I called a cab to take us to Eclipse. They should come back at about one to pick us up again." I frowned at her words. That would mean that we were all going to be too drunk to drive, and I wasn't a fan of alcohol. I would probably just sit there whilst the other two danced and drank. My frown increased as that thought passed my mind. I didn't like the thought of Bella dancing with some random guy. She was going to be _mine._

The ride only took about ten minutes, and before long we were outside the club, the music pounding through the walls and drunk pouring in and out was quite unnerving, but I wasn't going to let Bella in there without me. My sister could as she had the art of butt-kicking mastered, but I wanted to keep Bella away from any horny guys that want a quick one. I wouldn't be able to beat them up, but I could at least hold them off until Rose arrived.

There were no booths left to sit in unfortunately, so we had the choice between bagging three seats at the bar or leaving them for someone else so we have to stand up all the time. Of course, Rose was a perfectionist and didn't think that having to stand up for hours was an option, so she lunged for it, just as this really big guy and his friend reached the seats.

"Excuse me, but we were here first," The big guy said, trying to unlatch Rose from the stool. "You'll just have to wait for more seats." He was ogling Rose's form in the dress and I suddenly felt protective. I wasn't sure that Rose could fend off this guy, but I was more worried if his friend went after Bella.

"Too bad, we need them more," Rosalie snarled, waving us to come over.

We crept there hesitantly, hoping to not outrage the guy that would surely give us broken arms, but that was until I saw his face. He didn't seem that bad with the dimples he had. Actually, I knew that Rose loved that sort of facial feature, even if she wasn't showing it. Something flickered in the strangers eyes and his lips pulled up into a huge grin.

"My name's Emmett," He introduced, jutting his hand out of Rose to shake. She stared at him for five seconds, which made me think that perhaps she would slap him in the face, but luckily, no. She sat on the stool along with me and Bella as if he weren't there.

"Nice to know. Now get lost," She demanded as she waved over the bartender. Emmett's jaw fell open and his brown eyes filled with defeat. He trudged away with his friend just after he winked at Bella, and I fought the instinct to growl. I knew this was a bad idea. The idiots here would all be tripping over themselves to win her, and there would be no getting away from a hoard of horny drunks that wanted to most gorgeous girl within range.

Once they were both out of sight, Rose ordered Bella and herself two glasses of wine whilst I asked for a coke. I was planning on being the designated driver, even if the term meant nothing as we needed no driver apart from the one controlling the cab. But, I wanted to make sure Bella was safe and that she wouldn't be attacked by the population of this night club.

As I sat there, I watched as my sister and love gulped down their beverages and headed to the dance floor with another in their hands. I sighed and leaned back against the bar, staring at Bella even when she slipped in those heels and almost fell to the ground. I came so close to jumping up and catching her, but she already regained her balance before I could. I also caught sight of multiple guys ogling her from around the room and I shot them glares. They didn't notice the daggers being thrown at them and just kept on staring at Bella. Why couldn't I bring up the nerve to ask her out so I could call her mine? Well, first she would have to say yes, but at least I could say I tried.

Emmett snuck past the girls and to me, passing me a small scrap of lined paper. "Can you give this to her? She might change her mind," He suggested.

I rolled my eyes. "Are you sure? My sister doesn't fool around with piss heads." He blushed when he realised that we were siblings, and I guessed that he didn't figure out that I was calling him a piss head.

"Well, still give it to her." He mumbled before walking back to his friend. I found the exchange a little weird, but before I could think more into it, a drunken Bella staggered over to me, my sister watching us as she began to speak.

It took her a few moments, but she eventually talked. "Why haven't you asked me yet?" She asked, her words almost incoherent.

I frowned. "Asked you what?"

"Why haven't you asked me out on a date yet, Edward?" My name on her lips sent a shiver down my spine until her question fully set in. How was I supposed to respond to that? _I'm too shy to even approach you. _Luckily, I didn't need to come up with an answer. Actually, me not saying a word paid off pretty well. "Cause I would have said yes." My heart stuttered in my chest, but she didn't stop. "And before you push me away again, let me prove it."

Then she leaned in and pressed her lips to mine.

**Who else loves drunk Bella? She finally kissed him!**

**Please review! I barely get any and it feels like no one is even reading **


	9. Finally

**EPOV**

She was kissing me. Bella Swan was _fucking kissing me!_

This was the moment that I had been waiting for since I first laid eyes on this beautiful creature, yet I had no experience, therefore, no intelligence to tell me what to do. I had read once that over thinking during these sorts of events was terrible, so I let instinct take over as I gripped onto her waist, drawing her closer to me. She gasped, so I assumed it was the right thing to do.

I heard another distant 'click' as I had during Mike's party, but I ignored it. I was too immersed in the angel who was running her fingers through my hair, mussing it up even more than it already had been from all of my nervous scratches throughout the night. Our breathing was shallow as I tugged her even closer, lifting myself up from the stool to hold onto her properly. Her lips were sweeter than cherries, the skin on her arms felt like silk, and though everything I was thinking seemed cheesy, it was all true.

Eventually, the fireworks and colors had to end sometime. Bella pulled away slowly, her eyes drifted from my chest up to my face as she ran her fingers through my hair again. Her fingers in my hair felt divine. "I've been waiting for you to do that since last week," She whispered just loud enough over the music, leaning in to press another chaste kiss to my lips.

"I thought that you would reject me," I whispered back, keeping her tight in my arms. The thought that I had been holding off dawned on me, and I realised that this might have been out of intoxication. I mean, she was drunk. Didn't loads of people do stupid things they would regret when they were drunk? Would she regret this? I decided that I may as well enjoy my time with her as it may end as quickly as it started.

She shook her head softly, her chocolate eyes never leaving my green ones. Crap, I forgot to hide them. Would she think I was weird after having such a clear view of them? "Why would I reject you? You're so sweet and kind and smart," She listed, not bothering to mind how many 'ands' were in her sentence through her drunken haze. I chuckled slightly before leaning in again. I never wanted this moment to end, or this dream-it seemed like one.

Unfortunately, we were still in a crowded night club, and Rose was fast approaching. I sighed, and Bella gently unwrapped herself from me, making me whimper quietly. She didn't hear the embarrassing noise as she turned around to face Satan.

"Finally! It took ages for me to convince you!" Rose giggled, pulling Bella into a hug.

"What do you mean... convince?" I asked. Was Bella dared into this? Did she not want to kiss me at all, but had to because of the supreme powers of my arch nemesis sister? The rage and sadness boiled inside me at the same time, creating a whole new emotion for me to experience. I was devastated before I even got the answer.

"I had to get her brave enough to walk up to you! She kept thinking that you would push her away if she initiated the kiss, and that you were too fragile right now, but she finally did it!" She saw the confusion and fear on my face and sighed in frustration. "It wasn't because she got drunk, Edward. She barely had two glasses, and have you seen how small these things are?" She lifted up the glass in her hand to demonstrate. "Trust me. She wanted to."

I wringed my fingers nervously. "But what if she regrets it in the morning? If she looks at me, remembers what we've done tonight, and then runs away in disgust? I can't handle that." I peered over to Bella who was now ordering another drink, but just a J20 thankfully. Her face was slightly flushed, but she didn't look completely wasted. Actually, she only looked tipsy.

My ogling was disrupted when a sharp hit of pain smacked my cheek. "Ow!" I whined, rubbing it to try and erase the pain. Rose had hit me!

"You're being stupid again!" She told me, sipping from her wine. "She's been wanting you to talk to her since we both found out you loved her! Now, be a man and ask her out on a date." I was about to protest, but she cut me off. "And don't you even think about arguing over this. Bella wants to be with you; geeky little Edward. So, stop thinking that this is impossible and fight against it. You want this; you know you do. So live with what she's decided!" She would be good at prep rallies, I'll give her that.

I had been fighting against it, that I figured out when I actually saw it from her perceptive. Why didn't I just talk to her earlier in the week? Maybe we would have done this, and I would have had more time to be with her. I turned again to see Bella walking back over to us, a lazy smile playing at her lips. She seated herself at one of the stools I had reserved for her and my sister, and she rested her head on my shoulder as she sipped the juice through a yellow straw. My natural instinct told me to wrap an arm around her shoulders, so I did, and she practically melted into me.

The grin on my face was inevitable. I was actually holding a girl! And it was Bella! I couldn't help but feel extremely proud of myself for everything that had occurred tonight, even if it was all started by Bella. I had managed to not freak out when she kissed me, and that was one of the biggest achievements I've gained in my life. I felt like shouting it from the rooftops. Bella had actually kissed me and she may not even regret it!

When Bella started sucking up air from the bottle, we decided that we may as well go home. The taxi was meant to be here in about half an hour, but none of us really wanted to go back inside. Both Bella and Rose didn't want to stay in there for another minute with those two guys we had met earlier. I still had Emmett's phone number tucked away in my pocket to give to my sister later, but I already knew that she would freak out about it, sober or no.

As we stepped out into the cold, I felt Bella shiver in her tiny dress. Why hadn't Rose thought of what would happen after we got out? It's freezing at night, even if it is summer. I considered pulling her into a hug, but what would be her reaction? _Shut up and hug her Edward! _A voice sounded inside my head. _She's already kissed you!_

I wrapped my other arm across her stomach, tugging her even tighter to me as I rested my head on her hair. It was so _soft_.

She welcomed the gesture and hummed gently. "Thanks, Edward," She mumbled into my shirt when she turned her head. I looked up from my spot in her hair to see Rose pulling out a camera and napping a shot of us, but I couldn't care less. I was living my fantasy, at last, and no pictures could change that.

We stood there for the full half an hour before the taxi arrived. We all piled in and gave him directions to our apartment block. Bella lived in the one next to us, and I didn't want her to have to walk there by herself, so I offered to go with her. I couldn't really remember who lived in that block with her, but if it was anyone like Tyler or Ben, she wouldn't be getting to her apartment in time to escape. The people we had class with were disgusting like that, but no one had any evidence worthy of showing to the authorities, so they still lived alongside us.

I led Bella up the sidewalk and toward her block after we got out of the cab. There were clouds lingering in the sky, and obvious sign of rain, so I hurried her, wanting to keep her dry. Why hadn't I just worn a jacket so I could lend it to her?

When we reached her apartment, she rapidly turned around to face me before pressing her lips against mine, sending shockwaves of activity throughout my body. I kissed her back, wishing that this night would never end, but of course, like most things, it would. Once she stopped the kiss over a period of two minutes, she pulled away to kiss my forehead. "Your glasses keep hitting me in the nose," she giggled, stroking a piece of hair that hung over my forehead.

"I can take them off, if you want..." I offered, but she was already shaking her head.

"Don't. They're cute." She thinks I'm cute! "Goodnight, Edward."

"Goodnight, Bella," She turned and left me at the door. An idea popped into my mind and I stopped her.

"Um, would you want to go out sometime? Maybe to the coffee shop round the corner tomorrow?" I asked nervously.

She smiled widely. "Sure! How about at four?"

I nodded and she grinned, before continuing into her apartment. I eventually started to stroll back down the stairs, my head in a strange haze from what had occurred throughout the night.

I was still in said haze when I walked into my apartment door and heard the familiar _thump _flowing from Mike's room. I guessed that it was Tanya, but the moans elating behind the door were more high pitched, so I figured that it could be her cousin, Carmen. Poor girl didn't know what hit her.

**BPOV**

I awoke from my drunken slumber with a pounding headache. I rose from the pillow and gripped my forehead, trying to make the pain stop, but unfortunately, it didn't until I got up and gulped down some cold water I kept in the fridge. As I drank, I tried to remember everything that had happened last night down to the last detail. I hadn't gotten too drunk, not even that tipsy, so I couldn't have done something too bad. The slight hangover was just something that I always got whenever I consumed alcohol.

I could conjure up flickers of memories from the previous night. Edward sitting at the bar whilst Rose dragged me out onto the dance floor with wine glasses in our hands. Then after about ten minutes, she had started talking to me about how I should hurry up and kiss Edward. Then after a while of convincing that he wouldn't run away, I did it.

I kissed Edward! And from what I recalled, he kissed me back!

This was a huge breakthrough in our relationship. Granted, we didn't fully have one since we had been ignoring one another over the past week, but this could give him the courage to ask me out. Then another memory broke through. He had asked me out, hadn't he? Whilst we were saying goodbye at my door last night, he had asked me out to The Warm Cocoa for four. Another wave of giddiness washed through me, and through my hangover, I felt like hopping up and down.

The only thing I could be worried about that day was how Rose was going to react when she found out.

**I hope you liked it! And thank you for your wonderful reviews! Keep them coming.**


	10. Date

**EPOV**

There was another hour before Bella would arrive at the coffee shop, but I was already on my way there by three. I was too excited to stay at home, so I figured that I could just wait there. Mike had been a pain in the ass all day, so I had even more reason apart from my excitement to run away and be early. As I strolled down the hot summer sidewalk, a biting thought lingered in my mind. What if Bella truly hated what had happened the night before, and decided to never look at me again? Rose said that she hadn't drunk enough to make her a mindless drunk, but I couldn't get the question out of my head.

I sat in an empty booth, ordering myself a hot chocolate for myself along with an egg and cress sandwich. I wasn't a fan of coffee, just like the alcohol, so I was the childish sort that loved hot chocolate. I was also one of those people who didn't find egg and cress disgusting. Egg doesn't smell that bad, and it tastes great in these ready-made sandwiches.

Once my beverage and snack arrived, I contemplated on whether or not Bella would even remember this date. _Stop it, Edward,_ a small voice that imitated Rose's cried, _she'll show up. You know that your sister has it all covered._ Of course she would. She would find out when she went to Bella's to badger her on last night, and somehow it would slip. I wish that I had told her about the Prisoners Dilemma, which meant that the two allies kept their mouths shut about the other, even through immense interrogation.

As I munched on the sandwich, I noticed Jessica and Lauren bustle into the room with their handbags on their arms whilst they chatted about the party last night. They didn't seem to see me at all as they passed me and occupied the booth next to mine. I heard their girlish giggles as they gossiped about how drunk Eric got and what had happened with Angela when they were alone in the host's room.

"She's such a slut! I mean, she didn't touch a drop of alcohol yet she let Eric get it on with her," Lauren said after she ordered both her and Jessica a coffee with cream. Yes, I heard her booming voice as she ordered it, so I wasn't a total earwig.

"I know! And have you seen Bella lately?" The sound of her name piqued my attention, so as I blindly traced the lines of the wooden table with my eyes, my ears were pointed in their direction, ready to hear whatever they had to say about my love. "She's been distant, and that can only mean one thing!"

"I know!" Gushed Lauren. What does that mean? The curiosity was killing me, and I lightly considered letting myself climb over the chair to shake them and ask for the answer. "Maybe she finally got laid. She was at Mike's party last week, so something could have happened there. I heard her _crying_ as I passed her apartment." They both laughed almost evilly as I processed their words.

"What a baby! I heard that she lost her virginity when she was sixteen to this guy at her high school," Oh, I remembered that. Paul was such a Douche bag. He was the star player of our football team, and he captured Bella's heart with the romantic act he put on. He got her to give him her heart, before he stomped on it and left her for the next girl who flirted with him. All I could do throughout the event was sit by the sidelines of the pitch he played on when she ran to hug him and he pushed her away, effectively breaking her heart.

Jessica continued. "He dumped her after he realised she was stupid enough to let him penetrate her."

"When did you lose yours, Jess?" For an empty headed girl, Lauren did have a point. Jessica didn't answer, but we all knew that she lost hers when she was fourteen to one of those cocky teenagers that only wanted popularity. She was so much worse in the idiotic department than Bella was as she just kept on giving her body to gain higher ranks in popularity. Honestly, what goes on in the average women's mind these days to make them fall for the social status jive?

They carried on talking for another half an hour before Bella arrived. She had her hair pinned into a loose bun, and she was dressed in a tight turquoise top and jeans. She looked a little hung-over, but to me she was still a goddess. Jessica and Lauren snickered at her appearance and joked about how she could have been sleeping with another guy last night, but I knew enough to ignore them.

She smiled and shuffled over to sit next to me, taking notice of the bitches that sat in the next booth. "Did they see you here?" She whispered as the boy who took the orders hurried over. She knew that they would have made a big scene if they saw us together, and perhaps she wanted to keep us under wraps in case she wanted to end it. _Stop doubting her feelings for you Dickward,_ my sister's voice chirped again. Maybe I was going to end up schizophrenic.

I shook my head as the blonde haired guy reached our table. He kind of resembled Mike, and the way he was ogling Bella meant that he acted like my roommate too. I suppressed a growl, but luckily, he saw my glare and backed off, asking her for her order. She just asked for a Fanta and he quickly complied, rushing over to the drink cooler the fetch her one.

"So, um, Edward," She began, nervously tapping on the table. I was secretly running my hands down my thighs as I tried to remove all signs of sweat from my own nervousness, so I could sympathize. "Are we official now? I mean, only if you want to..." She trailed off, leaving me to conjure an answer. She actually wanted to be my girlfriend? I felt like jumping up and doing a happy dance.

I nodded rapidly. "Of course I do," I stammered. "But... Why?" _What do you mean, why? Dammit, all you had to say as yes!_ I was willing to smash my head with a hammer at this point to expel the droning voice of my only sibling.

She frowned and cocked her head to the side. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because, um..." What was I going to say? Because I don't deserve you as you deserve a prince?

She shook her head slightly. "Edward, you have to stop doubting yourself. Unless you don't want me to be with you, you have to respect my choices. And I've chosen _you_, Edward." She smiled at my surprise mixed in with excitement. "Rose told me you would act this way so she warned me to tell the truth. She told me to tell you what I think, that I don't care if you think you're just a nerd," She reached up to tuck a stray piece of hair from my eyes, revealing them for her to see. "You're _my _nerd."

A smile spread across my face as I reviewed her words. She said that I was hers. Could she be mine, too? "Is that a yes then?" Bella asked, telling me that my expression had transformed into what I felt, showing her what I was feeling. I nodded, making my eyes yet again concealed by my hair. She leaned in and pressed her lips to mine, the soft pillows making shivers run down my spine.

At some point during the fireworks, the boy brought back Bella's drink, but we must have missed him as he scurried away to not disturb us. Even if he looked and mainly acted like Mike, at least he had the respect to leave us to kiss. Mike wouldn't have let something like this go as I had never had a girl in my life and he knew that.

By the time we broke apart, Jessica and Lauren were preparing to leave, which meant that they were bound to pass and see us out together. Her wide eyes were full of fear of being caught and gossiped about, so I decided to take a trip to the restroom to save her the trouble. Her face was apologetic as I snuck past the two that would ruin our relationship, but I fully understood. No one wants rumours being spread around about them-I knew from experience. I slipped through the door without notifying the enemy and looked at myself in the mirror.

My hair was dishevelled and my eyes were bright, making them look alien, even behind the curtain of my hair. I threw some water onto my face after letting the tap run for a minute-wasting more water than I would have liked- before opening the door to find Jessica and Lauren's booth empty and Bella eagerly awaiting my arrival. It was almost unbelievable that my dreams were rapidly coming true within the course of just two weeks. I mentally thanked Mike for throwing that party, which is something that I thought would never happened. Although he didn't do much of the thinking-my sister did.

I thanked her for being Cupid at the right time before moving back to the love of my life. How long would it be until I could tell her the three words I longed for her to hear from me? The three words that could change our lives forever? _Pace yourself,_ my own mental voice said, thank god. _Don't hurry; she might be here to stay._

When I reached her, she was already standing up with her Fanta bottle in her hand. "Why don't we go for a walk?" She suggested. It sounded like a break-up line from a movie, but I knew that Bella wouldn't be as cruel as that. And somehow, I was convinced that she wouldn't _want_ to break up with me, at least not yet. I nodded and followed her out of the cafe, trying to ignore the guy who brought our drinks as he smirked at her. Okay, so maybe he wasn't that much better than Mike.

We strolled through a nearby park where a couple of people roamed on their break from classes. They would be ending in about two weeks when we would all be going home for the summer, so they were making the most of it. I was just glad that I didn't have to go home after another year of not talking to Bella. Perhaps I could even visit her and her dad whilst we were both in Forks. She would visit her mother and stepfather half way through the holiday, so I could have an extra three weeks to stay with Bella.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked randomly, examining her thoughtful appearance.

She shrugged. "Nothing much." I knew that there was more than that considering her blush, so she spilt. "I was actually thinking about what sort of a future we could have. Like, if we could see each other more throughout our college days and through summer." I smiled when she revealed that we were in synch with our thoughts.

We started heading toward our apartment buildings and I sighed almost inaudibly. This was where we would have to part ways for the day. I had a feeling that she would be bombarded by my sister, and that I wouldn't be able to see her until Monday.

At her communal door she turned to me and took my hand before she slowly raised on her tip-toes to hesitantly press her lips to mine, checking my permission first. I willingly accepted, letting her kiss me with as much or as little force as she so desired.

I could feel that this was the beginning of a happy life, or at least term, for me.

**There you have it! It took long enough, but they're finally together.**

**I can tell you that it was hard work trying to keep them apart. I wanted to extend the story, and although I could have made Edward so self-conscious about himself that he said no to them being together, I just cracked.**

**Please give me more of your lovely reviews! I absolutely love them!**

**P.S if there is any criticism that you wish to post like many did on You Have Me, leave a pen name so I can message you back. But I really hope that there is nothing too bad about my fanfic **


	11. Starting Out

**BPOV**

When I got home from our date, Rose was waiting to ambush me. It wasn't like she was hiding behind the door, ready to pounce when I entered. Actually, she was sitting on the couch devouring my ice cream. I had forgotten that I had left here after she came over to speak with me about last night earlier that day. But I'm not too sure if I allowed her to stay in my apartment whilst I was gone. She had made herself comfortable on my couch and was devouring my chocolate ice cream whilst she watched '_The Big Bang Theory.'_ She turned at my entrance and fired off a couple of questions as she stuffed the last spoonful of the pot in her mouth.

"How did it go? Are you two finally official, or what? Don't just stand there, answer me!" She demanded, discarding the empty pot on the floor in her haste to stumble over to me. I sighed when I realised that my precious Ben and Jerry's had been discovered and gobbled by the intruder. I walked to the left pot, ignoring Rose's questions whilst I could, and picked it up before taking it to the trash can. I need to buy more comfort food now.

Rosalie sighed in annoyance before clutching her hands to my shoulders and placing me on the couch, keeping her lilac eyes on mine. "You know that there's no way out of this, so hurry up and spill. I haven't got all day, you know." She flicked her hair behind her right shoulder for emphasis, yet she never took the evil look out of her eyes.

I mentally wailed at the thought of what I had to say, but I figured that I would just have to face it. As she said, there was no getting out of it. "We talked and I asked him if he wanted to be together-" I was disrupted by my best friend's award winning high pitched squeal as she hopped around the room in a celebration dance. I sat there and waited for her to complete whatever ritual she was performing, before she plonked herself on the carpet in front of the couch, now fully calm. I continued.

"And after I asked, he said yes." I finished. I was expecting her to ask for more details, but she started squealing again. I raised an eyebrow.

"You just don't understand how important this is Bella," She informed me seriously, staring at me straight in the eye. "You've managed to get my unsocial, nerdy, loser of a brother to break out of his shell and into a relationship! Now, that is a huge achievement for one day of work." I rolled my eyes at the understatement. "Okay, perhaps it was a week of work, but you know what I mean." She amended.

How she regarded her sibling was ludicrous. Sure, he was slightly nerdy, but that was the part of his charm that made him irresistibly cute. I swore, if that boy ever pulled out doggy eyes and a pout I would run the other way to escape agreeing to something by coercion. Yes, that look was just that adorable to make you let anything slide.

Before I could weasel my way out of the clutches of Rose, she put her palms forward, her face in a panicked freeze. "Did you two kiss?" She questioned, a hint of desperation seeping into her voice as she awaited my answer.

I rolled my eyes. "What do you think? We declare that we're together, and then we walk away without anything happening." I muttered sarcastically. Luckily, Rosalie got it and whooped, celebrating her brother actually having his first kiss. Or second if you count yesterday, or third... Well, you get the picture. She was happy that her sibling finally had a relationship with a girl.

Once she had her fill of dancing around my apartment and taking my food against my wishes, Rosalie left for her own apartment, claiming that she had a date that night. His name was apparently Alastair, and he had greeted and treated her like a goddess, but none of that made much sense to me. Alistair was a sleazy, good-for-nothing player whose technique for getting girls was making them feel somewhat special until he scored and went for the next one. Of course, Rosalie was somehow a hopeless romantic, and she was set on finding the one for her, even if it meant dating all of the idiots first.

I sighed and dropped back against the couch, thinking of what I could do for the next two or three hours before I went to bed. I made a checklist in my head, counting off everything that was done and what had to be done. The only cleaning that needed to be finished was the duvet on my couch, then I had a couple of pieces of homework to complete, but after they were done, I would be stumped for ideas.

I put the blanket away, laying it back on my bed neatly and tucking it in at the sides before I grabbed my homework and began writing as I sat on the clean sheets. To my surprise, I was rid of the remaining chores within the hour, and had nothing left to do but sit and do nothing until I started dozing off.

At about six o'clock, I was watching a random sit-com on my small TV when there was a timid tapping on the door. Confused to who it was, I crept toward the source of the sound and peeked through the small hole to see Edward standing there, his hand being ran through his hair whilst he stared at the floor in his obvious nervousness. Surprised and happy to see him, I opened the door and he blushed slightly, perhaps wishing that I wasn't here, therefore, he wouldn't have to put himself into embarrassment when I saw that he had knocked for me.

"Hey, Edward." I greeted, a huge grin planted on my face.

"Hi," He answered shyly, only peeking up at me through his glasses as he continued to look down at the hard concrete of the ground.

"What do you need?" I asked after a few moments of silence. He was obviously too shy to talk, so I decided to start the conversation for him.

He blushed. "I just wanted to double-check if we were _really _official." His hand went to the back of his head and he rubbed the back of his neck timidly. "Official enough that I could see you more at school and..." He blushed an entire new shade of red but didn't speak again.

I giggled and he smiled slightly at the sound. "Of course you can see me more, and not just in school. And yes, Edward, you can kiss me in public too." He cowered when he realised that I had figured out what he had been too shy to say, but the smirk was evident on his face. "You can kiss me now, if you want," I added quietly, not expecting him to leap up and pounce at the opportunity.

His actions startled me, but I greedily accepted his kiss. He wrapped him arms around my waist with a strange excel in confidence, drawing me into him. By the time he had finally released my lips, we were both breathless, panting from the recent event. Each time he done that, there was an explosion of bliss within me, even if our moment was often disrupted by the occasional bump of his glasses hitting my nose. He looked down at me from those same black framed glasses now, the constant shyness flecked with joy. When he noticed that I could see his gorgeous green orbs, he was quick to conceal them behind his hair. I fought away my frown.

_You're going to have to show me your eyes sooner or later, buddy,_ I internally warned. _I'll find out why you keep them from me then put a stop to it._

His face turned into one of determination, but before he could press his lips to mine again, there was the familiar click of high heels making their way up the stairs. Edward buried his face into my neck just over my shoulder, trying to hide uselessly from Satan herself. "Aw!" She commented, taking in the scene before her. "It was just a matter of time before he would come running back to you after about, hm, let me think," She looked down at the silver watch laced to her wrist. "Two hours!"

I could feel the skin of Edward's face heat up against my shoulder as his sister revealed this information. "Stop it, Rose. You're making him embarrassed!" I chided, stroking the thick bronze locks that invaded his head. I felt his lips pull into a smile at the gesture as mine did.

"Quit the lovey dovey stuff then." She countered.

"Why should we?" I almost hissed back, kissing Edward's hair and hearing his sigh of contentment.

Rosalie rolled her eyes dramatically. "Edward, if you don't stop trying to coat Bella's neck in kisses-" Which he had been doing throughout the exchange with Rose "-I swear to god I will drag Mike up here and let him feast his eyes on the colleges new gossip." At this, he yanked himself away. He smiled sheepishly at my amazement of his speed, but why he reacted so quickly lingered in my mind.

"I don't want you to be embarrassed by being with me," He explained almost silently. Oh, so he didn't want any rumours being spread about us in case it made me upset. That was really cute of him, but I don't understand why he would think that I wouldn't want the school to know. It wasn't as if he were a onetime thing that I would be done with before it came to me being called a nerd. This was something that I wanted to last for awhile, or as long as he would have me.

"I won't be embarrassed," I whispered back. Rose chose that second to intervene.

"Okay, that's enough. I need to talk to Bella." Again? "Edward, get back to your apartment and deal with the idiot you live with. You can see Bella on Monday." He frowned at the day we would spend apart, and his expression almost made me giggle. I kissed his lips lightly and smiled brightly at him, telling him that we would survive until Monday. He didn't seem too convinced, but after my chaste kiss, he was at least a little happier. He mumbled a quiet 'see you later' before he went down the stairs.

**EPOV**

As I strolled back to my apartment in my Bella induced haze, my mind raced at a million miles an hour. Bella and I were _actually_ official, which meant that she was my girlfriend! I had the urge to attempt to scale the walls of our apartment block and scream it from the rooftops, but I figured it was probably a bad idea.

I walked in through the open door that led into my front room, shutting it behind me and heading to my computer. Mike had left it open, as usual, in his hurry to get himself and whatever girl he had tonight into his room. This happened most Saturdays when he thought that he had too little time to woo them into following him. These were his homework days, and though he had asked me to do it for money, I denied, leaving him to rush his entertainment.

I logged onto my computer and then into my Facebook. Even as a geek, I had to stay in touch with my friends in case we had some sort of science project due because I had that class with them, no matter how cliché that sounded. But another slight reason why I created myself an account on Mark Zuckerburg's creation was so that if I did get the chance to be Bella's boyfriend, I could change my relationship status to let the world know I had a girlfriend.

Mike and any other of the more popular kids in the school didn't know that I even knew about Facebook, so they never asked me for a friend request if they even wanted to become my virtual friend. Bella had always been my friend on this though. I quickly typed in her name next to the 'In a relationship' box and pressed enter, saving it to the internet and its databases for good.

Now I could say that it was definitely 100% official. Bella Marie Swan was mine.

**Sorry for the delay! **

**I've read both Eternally Damned and Written in the stars to get rid of a slight writers block, but I still get headaches from reading in the third person, so I had that as I finished this chapter **

**I really suggest reading both of them, though. If you know any fanfics that are completed and have Edward and Bella in a happily ever after, please tell me!**


	12. Mine

**EPOV**

When the morning of Monday finally arrived, I was jumping in my bed as I anticipated the day. Mike had left to visit his parents for his late grandfather's funeral, so he wouldn't notice me being so close to Bella as he followed me around for answers to left over homework. Everyone else in the school would see me kissing Bella-there was no way to prevent me from doing that-but no one told Mike anything. He was always the last person to learn about any new stories that spread around the college.

The reason why I was so against Mike knowing anything about me and Bella is because if he ever knew, he would never let me live through it. Yet that wasn't my biggest fear. With Bella around the apartment more as I wished she would be, he may try to rapidly take her from me and make her his own, which I couldn't live with. So, I was going to do my best to keep our relationship hidden from him and him alone. If anyone told him, then I would just have to live with his constant leering toward Bella as I tried to fend him off.

I prepped myself for the day of school, packing everything I would need along the lines of homework into my bag before I set off, leaving Mike to rush around as he yet again forgot that it was Sunday yesterday, and that the weekend didn't last forever. The walk to my first class was uneventful, but the biting idea that perhaps I could have offered to walk Bella to class was making me weary. Should I have gone to her apartment and asked her if I could escort her? Before I could change my mind and turn back for her, I entered the crowd of early comers and was pushed toward campus.

My first two classes went by slowly. To be honest, time didn't tick this sluggishly for me, but I was going to be seeing Bella during my break, so maybe that was why god had decided to tamper with space and time itself to torture me. After an hour or two of the professors droning voice, the bell finally sounded, releasing every student out of the clutches of pointless lessons that taught nobody anything. They really needed to rethink their teaching technique.

I made my way toward the cafeteria to see what was being served for break. There were only randomized muffins and some fruit, so I picked out an apple, paying for it before I took a seat outside. In the summer, the sun was usually up over Dartmouth, so most embraced it to go out hiking and play football. But me? I rather enjoyed staying in the shadows and people watching. Well, mostly Bella watching as I stared at her sitting at her usual place on a bench, talking to Rose. I normally spent these days examining the way the bright sunlight made the stray red strands in Bella's hair stand out, and a few that seemed purple. Could people even have natural purple hair?

But today was different. After I sat on the lone bench in the shade, I saw Bella had walked out into the sun and was scanning the mob as they chatted until she caught sight of me on my own in the dark. She smiled, the sun glistened off of her teeth and the beautiful red strands of hair on her head made her look like an angel as she made her way to me, a muffin in her hand.

"Hey," She greeted, taking a seat opposite me, blocking my view of the people around me, letting my attention focus on her and nothing else. She smiled and I saw the familiar dimple that I adored, just like the rest of her. Before I could go into spiral mode as I contemplated how gorgeous she was, a voice rung in my head. _She said hey! Say something back so she doesn't think that you're a loony!_

"Hi," I whispered, looking back down at the wood of the bench table. I traced the grains of the oak wood, trying to distract myself from the need to kiss her, but so far I was failing badly. By the time she spoke again, I was ready to pounce at her.

"Edward, I told you that you could kiss me in public," She reminded me, trying to glance at my eyes behind the curtain of hair and the frames of my glasses that had been put in the way of her vision. She grimaced a little when she couldn't look at them, and I instantly felt guilty. Maybe she wouldn't be afraid or spooked by my eyes.

I took her reminder as an invitation which I wouldn't usually do as the gentleman I was, but I had been holding off for too long. I lifted myself off of my seat and leaned over to press her lips to mine. She moaned slightly, making my spine shiver as I pulled her up onto her feet so I could reach her lips easier.

We pulled apart after a minute, breathless as we were the previous day. I made sure that this time my eyes were fully concealed so I didn't have to worry about frightening Bella, but she frowned slightly. She was smiling, her face full of joy, but there was a tiny movement in her eyebrow that made her charade less convincing. "Edward, why do you hide your eyes?" She questioned, reaching to sweep the hair out of my eyes, but she changed her mind suddenly, resting it on mine which lay on the table.

I gulped. "I... I just thought that you might be scared of the color. I was...If you remember, I was teased a lot for them back when we were little. People said that they looked alien and that it creeped them out, so I assumed that..." I rambled, losing my dignity. Bella's expression was understanding but slightly annoyed as she recalled the many times I was locked in the storage cupboard and named 'Alien four-eyes' by the dumb jocks of Forks High. Those people included Mike Newton, which led to another reason why I didn't want him knowing about me and Bella. He was just a heartless bastard that didn't care for anyone's feelings but his own, and if he knew that we were together, he would be around us a lot more, effectively pissing us off until the Earths end.

This time, she did stretch her hand to meet my hair, gently tucking it out of the way of my glasses, and therefore, my eyes. This was included in one of my endless fantasies about her-her soft fingertips lovingly grazing my forehead and my hair. I knew that these things I dreamed about were slightly obsessive, but who was I to argue with those assumptions? I _was_ obsessed with Bella, and I couldn't tell if she knew that or not. Perhaps Rose mentioned it to her.

"They're not scary," She murmured, looking deep into my forest green eyes. "They're beautiful. Stop hiding them from me, please." Swimming in the chocolate depths of her glistening orbs, I thought _How can I say no to that?_ But it was habit, concealing my eyes from everyone around me so I don't get picked on further or lose any friends. It was a stupid habit, really, and I was sure that I could trust Bella to see them. I nodded and she smiled.

"Only to you, though." I warned, kissing her forehead. She giggled a little and nodded.

Later that day, I bumped into Finn and Simon, chatting about a game they had just purchased. They smiled a little and bounded up to me with a proposition. "We were thinking that maybe you would come over and play this with us," Finn declared, lifting up a copy of 'Lord of the Rings: War of the North.' "We just want to make up for the whole... Bella, thing."

"Only if I can bring Bella with me." I countered and they both frowned simultaneously, their eyebrows furrowed in confusion. We had never had a girl around us when we were being geeks around a game, but to be honest, I wanted them to get to know the girl I loved. If they were going to remain my friends, they would have to get used to her being around. Also, I wanted to show Bella more of my life.

"I... Guess so..." Simon said cautiously. "How about on Sunday?" I agreed and they scurried off, wondering out loud how the whole thing would blow over with a female specimen invading their game play. They were also worrying about if Bella would have to play or not. There were only three characters in the game they had: Andriel the Elven Lore master, Farin the Dwarf and Eradan, the Ranger. But, if Bella wanted to play I would let her take my place. I could just watch and convince her to kill the goblins and trolls rather than run away from them.

That night, Bella offered to stay over for awhile and watch a film or something with me. I gladly accepted, grateful that Mike was out of town, and that I would be able to spend the next few hours with her. And the image of up being tangled together on the couch under a cosy blanket made my heart throb. That image was almost as good as the real thing.

We decided to watch 'Warm Bodies', a film that she brought round that was about a brain eating zombie falling in love with a human girl, who was before determined to eliminate all undead creatures in the world as her father was. Throughout the movie, he slowly becomes human because of his love for her. To be honest, the movie was a little mushy to me, but if Bella enjoyed it, I would watch it as many times as she wished to make her happy.

We were cuddled up in my duvet, my arm placed around her shoulders and her head and hands resting on my chest. The room was dark apart from the flickering light illuminating from the TV screen, making the room just about bright enough to study the variety of colors in Bella's hair once again. Bella seemed absolutely content and calm, but I was silently freaking out about holding her. I was surprised that she couldn't feel me shaking beneath her. The electric currant of touching her was almost electrocuting me, almost bringing me to my knees.

About half way through the movie – when the rest of the zombies begin to understand what love is and their hearts start beating – Bella turned her head to lay her chin on my chest as she looked up at me, a small smile emerging on her face. I forced myself to concentrate on her and not let my weakness of being nervous around her break through, but it was hard. The current pulsed through me as her gaze continued to be unmoved from me.

And if the fact that I was touching and looking at her didn't make me nervous enough, her voice would surely be the thing to make me bow down to her.

"Are you okay, Edward?" She asked softly, reaching up to brush a bronze lock from my face as she had done earlier that day.

I gulped and nodded, but she seemed to sense my hesitation. "You don't have to be so shaky around me, Edward. Don't over think it." As I began to decipher what she had said – my over thinking shining through – she leaned over and kissed me full on the lips, causing a groan to be let out. She giggled slightly at my reaction, pulling away to breathe a little before she went back to what I had wanted to do all night.

When she pulled away, she had a smug smile on her face, and somehow, she had gone to straddle my waist. I blushed at the contact, but that just made her smile wider. Her fingers made a small pinching motion before she went to remove my glasses from my face, making my vision blurry, therefore, I could no longer see her clearly. My confused feelings must have showed on my face, because she quickly explained, "I didn't want them in the way," Before she leaned over again to kiss me.

When we were both out of breath, she rested her head back against my chest, not shifting from her position on my waist. I buried my nose into her hair, sniffing the strawberry and freesia essence of it.

My dreams were officially coming true.

**Sorry for the delay! Its summer now and I've been busy for the past week or so, but at least I got this done!**

**Please, if anyone has any good E&B stories I can read, please tell me! They help with the occasional writers block. **


	13. Lord Of The Rings

**BPOV**

Before I spent the evening at Edward's apartment, I had another diving lesson, which meant another encounter with the sex hounds of Dartmouth. Our coach, Mr. Masen, informed us that on our last week, we would be competing against a nearby College. This meant we had to train more often to reach our top potential, and that we had to show up more so we dive on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, which meant less time with Edward. The thought made my stomach hurt uncontrollably, just as it had all week when I thought of being apart from him. And whenever I was near him, my stomach lurched, making me feel like I was flying.

As I left the pool, I was yet again chased down by Mike's crew, excluding Eric and Mike. Mike was of course visiting his parents for the week, and I guess that Eric finally found himself a girl on that quick one night stand that everyone was gossiping about lately. Perhaps it was that nice Angela girl that was in my English class. Anyway, this time, it was Tyler who asked me out on a date to the night club Eclipse – I guess that place was getting more and more popular as it spread throughout the catacombs of the depressing population of this school. I naturally declined, saying that I already had plans for Sunday, and when he asked if I could go with him on either Friday or Saturday, I told him plain and simple – No.

He was curious as to what a social runaway like me could possibly be doing on those party filled days, but before he could badger me for information, I was out of there and towards my apartment block. I stuffed away my swimsuit and yanked a brush through my soaked hair, and then I strolled over to Edward's place to spend a few hours watching a film and, well, kissing him. I was desperately trying to get him to shatter whatever shell he had placed himself in, and it was slowly working. Throughout the week, he was becoming more open about our relationship and not hiding it from all of our peers. Tyler and his friends gaped at witnessing the one thing they thought could never happen - Edward kissing a girl. None of them had the courtesy to look away or pull out a phone to inform their friend about this new discovery. It made me a little uncomfortable to have all of their beady eyes on me, but the latter was very helpful and relieving.

On Sunday evening, I made my way over to Edward's apartment so he could walk me to Simon's place. Simon only lived across the hall from Rosalie, but my boyfriend insisted that he be a gentlemen and walk me there. He even asked if he could knock at my house and take me back here just so nothing would happen to me whilst a made the minuscule journey here, but I told him that I would be fine as I always was when I left the safety of my home. He was really sweet to offer, though.

As I trekked up the stairs to his door, I wondered when he would tell me the three words that would indefinitely change my life forever. Sure, I already knew that he loved me, and we were pretty early in the relationship, yet I couldn't help but _want_ him to proclaim his feelings for me. But even if he did tell me, what would I say back?

Before I could start pondering over what my possible answer might be, I was already knocking on his door, hearing him stumble to open it. When he did, I saw that his hair was mussed up and his glasses were on slightly wonky. He was also wearing a pair of dark navy trousers and a sort of black hoodie with a pattern printed on it to look some sort of writing. He saw my questioning look and chuckled nervously as I waited for an explanation. "In Skyrim, there's a wall that tells of the only way to kill the dragon Alduin written in dragon language, and... Well, this is kinda what is on that wall." He gestured toward the patterns, light pink blush slowly spreading across his cheeks.

I giggled and shook my head a little before reaching up to wrap my arms around his neck and pull his mouth down to mine. All embarrassment forgotten, Edward gripped my hips and gathered me into his arms, putting more enthusiasm into the kiss. After a moment or two, I unwillingly pulled away and brushed a stray piece of bronze hair out of his eyes as I stared into their forest green depths. "Don't worry about being nerdy; it's cute. I told you that already." He smiled and kissed me one more time on the nose before taking my hand and dragging me down the hall after his door was locked. Mike's absence came to mind.

"Edward, when's Mike getting back?" I was partially scared that Edward and I would have to spend less time together when his devil roommate moved back. Then that could lead to us drawing apart, and I'm not entirely sure if I would be able to live with that.

As we approached the door of one of his best friend's apartment, he turned to kiss me again, forcing my lips against his in reassurance. It was as if he could read my mind. "He's getting back tonight, but he won't know that I was out with you. At school tomorrow, it's gonna be impossible to keep us out of his view, but I'm prepared for that." He assured me, kissing my nose once more. He quickly knocked and pulled away.

Finn was the one to open the door – his spotty face was the only thing in view for a couple of moments as he greeted us and invited us inside his friend's home. The place was cluttered, with multiple comics piled unevenly on a desk in the corner, and a few crisp packets on the floor. Simon hurriedly picked up the trash and threw in a bin. He and Finn both looked really nervous and pressured. Edward pulled me toward the blue couch and sat me down with my head resting against his chest. The setup screen for 'The Lord of the Rings' was already on the TV screen.

There were three characters standing in a sort of triangle on the screen, but the Elven woman was the one that caught my eye. I didn't realise that they had female avatars in these games, but I was glad they did. If I had to play, I would at least want to be the one girl in the trio. Finn settled down on the opposite side of the couch after giving Edward a Play station controller, and Simon fell into a black bean bag.

"I'm Farin," Simon declared, selecting the Dwarf and then clicking on his game tag.

"I'm Eradan," Finn claimed quickly, doing the same as Simon had but with the guy holding a bow.

Edward groaned a little and had no choice but to choose the elf woman. I silently laughed at his reluctance to play this character, but kept my mouth shut. I didn't want to embarrass him anymore that he already had been in front of his friends, who were both noticeably uncomfortable with my being here. But, my laughter could not overthrow my surprise when I saw Edward's nickname choice that popped up on the screen.

"Swan_Cullen18, huh?" I mumbled under my breath. Edward's arm tightened around me but no one said a thing. My eyes shifted to see that Edward's face had turned a vivid scarlet and his hands were trembling as he anticipated my reaction. I decided to stay silent as I was, but I couldn't keep the huge grin off of my face. Who cares if it was obsessive? He was just so cute!

In front of us, I spotted Finn and Simon snickering about the name tag Edward had for himself. The lights had been turned off so that the light of the evening sun shining in through the curtains couldn't disturb their game play by glaring at the screen, so I scowled at them in the darkness in defence of Edward. They carried on with the game, defeating the surrounding goblins and looting the nearby chests, but they still had those cocky grins on their faces as they peered over to see Edward's expression. By the time the first quest was completed, he had stopped showing any signs of embarrassment, but something that his friends saw made their laughter more and more apparent.

Throughout the half an hour's worth of playing, the boys were chatting about random things they know about the game and how to pass certain bits, and by the time they had saved this huge eagle named Beleram, everyone apart from me flexed their fingers and paused the game, claiming that it was time for a break. Whilst Simon fetched a couple or snacks and Finn changed the TV to 'The Big Bang Theory', Edward wrapped both of his arms around my waist and repositioned himself so that his legs were at either side of me and my back was rested against his chest. I snuggled into him and gladly accepted the packet of Skips that was shoved in my face by Simon, so I was munching on them as we watched the episode when Sheldon's assistant, Alex, flirts with Leonard and his girlfriend Penny hates it. It's one of my favourites, because Leonard looks so cute when he's at her door with a cello in hand as he sings how sorry he is.

As we watched, Edward had buried his face in my hair, breathing deeply and he spied the TV through a few gaps between the strands. He had his fingers dancing on the skin of my hand, tracing the lines imprinted there. When it was declared that the game must go on, he didn't move from his place to grasp the controller. Finn and Simon started to turn on the PS3 again and set up the game as Edward whispered in my ear.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his hot breath brushing against my ear, making me shiver. I nodded slowly and he pressed his lips to the one spot on my neck that made me react crazily. I let out a tiny squeak and he shushed me, making sure that his friends couldn't hear us above their own rambling. "Be quiet or they'll hear." He continued to kiss up and down my neck, sending multiple shockwaves down my spine.

Once the game was up and running, Finn turned to see me and Edward in our compromising position, and he sighed in frustration. "Just because you have a girlfriend doesn't mean you have to rub it in, Ed." He groaned, shaking his head in disgust. I felt Edward smile against my throat.

"You don't get it, Finn. Her skin is like satin and her hair is _so soft._" He mumbled into said hair, kissing it gently. "It feels like silk." Both Finn and Simon moaned in annoyance and threw a pillow at him, ignoring my tomato red face. "Hey!"

"We just want to play, alright? We don't need to see you kissing a girl," Simon grumbled, starting the game without warning anyone. Edward sighed and grabbed the controller, laying his head on my shoulder so he could see what he was doing.

I swore, this game was just filled with the clicking of fingers hitting the square button. The air around us was engulfed by that sound with the addition of the three collaborating to defeat the occasional troll. From what it seemed, Edward's character was the best as she could project a sanctuary – a bubble that heals you and protects you from oncoming rocks and arrows if you were inside. And you could shoot magic and arrows at the enemies from inside, which effectively made it the most useful thing so far. The only bad things were the charging guys with giant hammers that wouldn't leave you alone, and killed the three almost simultaneously every try. Edward offered the controller to me so I could have a go, but I declined, knowing that I wouldn't have a chance at winning any fight. He chuckled but left me to sit in peace, his hair brushing my cheek.

At the end of the night, we said our goodbyes and Edward walked me over to his apartment. Mike was due to be home at around three in the morning, so we had about five hours before I had to be out of here and untraceable. We stumbled in and took refuge on the couch, his head on my lap and my fingers running through his hair. On the TV was just a repeat of the episode of 'The Big Bang Theory' that we watched earlier, so there wasn't much point in watching it again. Edward twisted around so that he was now facing me, a small, cute smile lingering on his face. His hair was once again drooping across his face, and the TV's light across his glasses left a shadow across his face. He looked up at me with such love in his eyes, and this weird feeling that had been bottled up in my stomach all week finally made sense to me. My internal question from the start of the night finally had an answer. I loved him, and I was pretty sure that it wasn't just because I knew of his feelings toward me. I figured that I had felt this way long before my encounter with Rose and her new discovery.

Perhaps I had secretly felt this way since High school when my heart was broken by Paul, a player that lured me into his trap. I could barely trust any other male in that school, or maybe the whole world when I was hurting then, but somehow, Edward never seemed hostile. His worrying glances toward me proved that he wasn't like the others; he was increasingly more trustworthy toward me compared the rest.

I decided that I would tell him. There was no use holding this in for months on end as I gathered up enough bravery to confess it. He gazed up and me questionably. "What are you thinking?" He whispered, reaching up to stroke my hair. _Come on, Bella, _I tell myself. _This is as good a time as any._

But I can't get the words out. They're stuck in my throat. I just shook my head and mumbled "Nothing" before I leaned down and pressed my lips to his.

I was gonna have to tell him sometime.

**She loves him! Yay!**

**I'm sorry for holding her confession off! It won't last too long :p**

**And I also edited the past chapters and posted them along with this to remove any mistakes.**

**Please Review!**


	14. PS3

**Sorry for the wait!**

* * *

**EPOV**

After Bella left the night we played Lord of the Rings, I hauled myself off to bed, not wanting to be conscious when Mike made his return. Knowing him, he got drunk on the way here and drove everyone near him on the train crazy, and I didn't particularly want to experience that at that time in the morning. As I predicted, when I was settled down under the covers with my vision blurry from my lack of glasses, Mike jammed the key in the lock and rattled it around until the door finally opened. The first thing he did after gaining entrance was drunkenly stagger to my door and try to open it, but I had slid the lock into place so I was safe from his torment.

"C'mon Eddie! I gotta tell you about this chick I met at my brother's funeral!" He was so drunk that he had actually forgotten who had died. And what disrespect to that loved one, he had picked up a girl whilst everyone around him was grieving. Smooth.

I ignored him and tried to fall asleep with thoughts of that night with Bella bouncing around in my head. It was clear that Simon and Finn were uncomfortable having my girlfriend there – Simon seemed desperate to keep the place clean when we first arrived – but they both eventually calmed down as we played. Simon was always worried about being judged, and constantly done his best to impress and uphold a positive relationship with those around him. But when Bella was there, his mind went into spiral mode. I could read what a person was feeling or thinking, or close to that anyway, and he was freaking out over nothing. Finn, on the other hand, was sort of calmer and tried to learn more about the 'Female species' so he could attempt to talk to a girl he had been chasing after since the start of the year.

Her name was Emily, and she sat next to him in Math. She had blonde hair that reached to her shoulders, and greeny browny eyes, which had just captured Finn. When I saw him staring at her from our table at lunch, I thought to myself 'is that what I look like when I stare at Bella?' I had been told that I was worse, but observing Bella a little more flushed the worries of my appearance away.

On Monday morning, I decided that I would pick Bella up before school. Mike was yet again awake late, so he wouldn't notice me and Bella walking to school holding hands, or at least I hoped that we would hold hands. I was planning to tell her that I loved her, even if it was too early in the relationship, but I couldn't figure out when to let it slip. Well, she was told already by Rose, but she had yet to hear it from me.

I dressed and packed my bag in my room before slinging it over my shoulder and quickly grabbing a breakfast bar from the kitchen. As I strolled out the door, I could hear Mike rushing around in his room trying to find clean clothes for the day, although it was obvious that he would end up wearing what he had been for the past couple of days. I quickened my step once I was on the sidewalk to Bella's apartment block, and eventually, I was at her doorstep debating whether or not I should knock, but my decision was made when the door was yanked open and a dishevelled Isabella showed before me.

I blushed slightly when she saw that I was standing here, and I heard her nervous giggle sound while I stared at the floor. "Aren't I late?" She asked quietly, her voice full of sleep after our late night.

"No, there's about half an hour more until we're meant to be in class." I replied, looking up to see her face scarlet red with embarrassment. "We're your clocks fast?"

She laughed and nodded glumly. "What are you doing here, Edward?" She stepped forward and kissed my nose and I blushed deeper. Jeez, when was I going to get over this blushing thing? I must look so naive and vulnerable like this when I'm around her.

"I... I came to walk you to school..." I stammered, trying to concentrate with her lips on my skin. Let's just say, concentration is impossible when I was with Bella like this. I felt her smile and I could feel my own grin emerging as well, no matter how much I tried to prevent it. She pulled away swiftly and locked her door shut before taking my hand and leading me down the stairs. It was just like how I wanted to be only an hour ago when I thought about walking Bella to school.

I knew that Mike was still getting ready – it was just predictable – so I figured that it would be fine if I held Bella to me by her waist instead of just her hand. I reached over and wound my arm around her, gaining a heavenly sigh of contentment from her. I secretly leaned over and rested my nose lightly on her hair so that I could smell the scent of her strawberry shampoo that she must have used this morning. When I looked myself over and saw what I was doing, I actually figured that I was getting pretty good at this boyfriend stuff now. Being the sort like Mike would make getting to this state in a relationship could be tricky, but luckily, I wasn't that sort. In fact, not being like Mike proved to be much more beneficial. I got the girl of my dreams, and I don't always act like a complete dork.

Throughout that day, and that week, Bella and I had some distance between one another. On Friday though, Bella claimed that she had had enough and dragged me behind a tree where no one could spy on us whilst she kissed me senseless. It was there that she asked if she could come over so we could have more time together, and I readily agreed. Would I ever be able to say no to her? If she asked me to embarrass myself immensely or get myself beaten up, would I do it for her?

The answer is yes. Yes I would.

So, on Friday night, I prepared my house for her arrival. Sort of like Simon's control freak state, I rushed around picking up cushions and washing dishes until everything was shining. Unfortunately, I realised too late that I should have waited for Mike to leave for his weekly party before acting strange like this. His suspicions seemed to be high.

"What are you doing' Eddie?" He mumbled, stuffing a pickle and ketchup sandwich in his mouth. His tastes were just... weird, to say the least. "Are ya bringing a girl home tonight?" I froze slightly, wondering how he figured it out but before I could question him – and reveal my intentions – he burst out laughing. "Yeah right like that would happen! God, Eddie, you crack me up!" He wiped a pretend tear from under his eye before grabbing his jacket and keys and leaving.

"Oh," He said, rushing back to the door. "Don't wait up. I'm gonna be out 'till dawn!"

I mentally wiped the sweat off of my head comically before returning to what I was doing before. My gaze drifted to the PS3 next to the TV, and I thought _Why not?_ I may as well try and up my level on Skyrim for the PS3. I rarely ever played it on anything else but my computer, and perhaps Bella would like to watch me play. Maybe it would show her why I was so obsessed with it and all. Perhaps I could explain some of the history of Skyrim...

That's probably going a little too far.

She may not even be interested in the creation of Mundas and Nirn, the universe and the planet, and how the several gods of Mundas were split into good and evil. Yeah, I wouldn't get into that tonight.

When Bella knocked at the door at around six, I had reached the quest when you have to delve into a barrow to gather a Dragon tablet. I let her in, not expecting her to launch herself at me the moment the door was open. My arms wrapped around her and shut the door before I allowed her to push me back onto the couch and straddle me. She tugged at my hair as she deepened the kiss, but before we could go much further, my terrible planning made us break apart. My character on the TV was being attacked by Mudcrabs near a settlement named Riverwood, and I needed to save him and remember to pause the game if I leave the controller. I smiled apologetically and laid back on the armrest, allowing her to sit between my legs with my hands in front of her, grasping the black controller as I tried to remain calm. Her milky white neck was to the left of me, and I had to violently fight the urge to kiss it.

"Carry on playing. I'll just watch." She assured me and I smiled, pressing a kiss to her hair before clicking the play button and making my way to my currant quest.

As I travelled up the mountain, Bella asked for more information on what I was doing. She was actually showing an interest in my gaming, so I decided to make the most out of it whilst I could, and gave her a full description of what a newbie to the game would know so far.

"I need to uncover a tablet for a Mage so he can find out why the dragons are coming back and maybe how to stop them," I mumbled. "But to get to the tablet, I need to kill a bunch of bandits that have taken refuge in that tower over there and in the barrow where the tablet is." I continued to click the buttons of the controller, desperately trying to vanquish my enemies, to which I succeeded.

For the next hour, Bella patiently watched me as I became Thane of Whiterun, the central province in Skyrim, and as I battled the first dragon to attack civilization since the big black one at the start of the game. But my luck streak had to end sometime. When I was travelling to Ivarstead, I was ambushed and killed by a clan of bandits that were hiding in the shadows. Yet, instead of feeling sad that I would have to start again from my last save point, I looked back down at Bella's neck that was still presented before me, and let instinct take over.

When my last save loaded, I paused the game and kissed her delicious skin, making my way up to her lips fairly slowly, savouring her as much as possible. She giggled and twisted around, lying on top of me whilst openly kissing me. My hands drifted over her waist and to the hem of her soft blue top, until the fell under the cotton and hit her silky skin and I whimpered almost silently. Bella heard that little noise and lifted her gaze to mine, a smile spreading over her face. "Bedroom?" She inquired, kissing her way down my neck.

To be honest, I was freaking out. Should we do this? No. Not yet. I have to tell her first. This was the perfect yet most inconvenient time to tell her. Maybe she'll see it as a romantic gesture, or perhaps she'll run and think I'm a stalker freak.

You know what? Screw it. I'm telling her.

"Bella," I whispered, brushing a few strands of hair behind her ear. "I love you... So much."

Luckily, she didn't make me wait in agony for her answer. "I love you too, now..." She pulled me up with her as she stood and led me to my bedroom, ignoring the posters spread on the walls.

Goodbye insecurities! If I could say that and get a positive response from Bella, I was sure I could do anything.

* * *

**Sorry! But no lemons! I am 13, and way too young to write that stuff.**

**Please review on this! I only get about one or two for each chapter and it's really starting to bug me. **


	15. Interrupted

**EPOV**

The room was dark, yet the radiating glow coming from Bella still gave me some sight, even if it was blurred from not wearing my glasses. That night was amazing and experimental for me. Bella must have experienced something like the emotions that had pulsed through me sometime before this occurred, but I didn't posses the concentration to focus on the bad things about guys she may have gone out with. Those bad thoughts were still there, but blinded by the constant bliss I felt as I held Bella, one arm under her neck and my other hand sprawled across her stomach.

She was still asleep, a slight smile on her face as she dreamed. My hand stroked her glossy hair which was tangled after our night, only able to reach a part of it as my arm was trapped under her neck. As I continued to stare at her incomparable beauty, I begin to think about how I got so lucky. After watching from afar since I was five years old, I had memorized almost every feature on her face perfectly, or as close as I could get to perfect from the distance, but now, I could recognise the smallest marks on her skin. The dimples she had were obvious before, but now I could see a small mole on the hairline close to her left ear, and how her eyelids looked as if there was a light, purple eye shadow although I knew she never wore make-up.

My hand lifted from her stomach and skimmed up her side until it cradled her face. Unable to fight the urge to touch her, I let my fingers drift onto her face, over her eyelids and along her hairline. When my fingers path made its way to her throat, I heard Bella giggle slightly, indicating that she was awake, even if her eyes didn't open.

I smirked into the darkness and my hand travelled back down, feeling the milky skin of her chest and then her stomach. She moaned slightly, anticipating my next move. But, she didn't get what she betted on. Instead, my fingers dug into her sides, tickling her until there was no breath left in her.

After being begged to cease my movements, I complied and allowed Bella to breathe. She looked over to me and smiled before snuggling into my side, my arm automatically wrapping back around her. "What a wakeup call," She practically snorted. I chuckled at her slight annoyance, knowing that she wouldn't detest me for what I had done. I started to kiss her hair repeatedly, savouring the moment as much as I could. She twisted her head around so her chin was resting on my bare chest and looked up at me in the darkness. "Are you okay?"

Now it was my turn to snort. "Isn't it obvious? I just made love to the girl I've had a crush on since I was five, and you're wondering if I'm okay? I'm more than okay." She giggled at my words, reaching up to curl my hair in between her fingers.

"I was just checking that you weren't traumatized." She added, making me shake my head. Just because I was a social outcast, didn't mean I would run away from something like this.

To prove that I was over the moon with what we had done, I began to kiss her forehead, and slowly make my way down to her lips. I sat up a little and rolled us both over so that I was hovering over her, never moving my lips from hers. In those bliss filled seconds, I knew that if given the choice, I would stay like that forever. Just me and Bella, alone and together like this was enough to make my lore stocked head whirl.

It was too early to say that we were alone...

Just before we could both get lost in our actions, there was a loud stomping outside my room and Mike's drunken voice seeped in through the doorway. "Hey Eddie!" I couldn't muster up the power to pull away from Bella's lips quite yet to care about Mike's arrival.

"Did you lock the door?" She asked against my lips, and I mentally face palmed and slammed my head against the wall multiple times. I was too distracted with Bella to think through the possibilities of what could happen so I could prevent them. And locking my bedroom door was probably the one thing I should have done. Bella saw my expression of self-disgust and gasped quietly before thinking a little and pressing her lips back to mine. I shrugged it off and went along with her, not really caring anymore if Mike saw us.

"He probably won't even come in here," I suggested, and she put more force into the kiss.

"...I'm gonna need ya to put this beer away for me so I can take this girl... to... bed." Mike had opened the door, shedding some light onto Bella and me as we kissed. I turned a little to see his blurry face in shock, and his mouth hanging open. I thought about sticking a middle finger up at him for intruding on us, but I kept it to myself. "You... Wha... Bella... How the fuck did that happen?"

Bella had broken away when I peered over to Mike, and was evilly scowling at the guy that had chased her since High school as he tried to think of something to make what he was witnessing make sense. "Get out of here, Mike. This is none of your business." After spitting that at him, she brought her hand up to grasp my chin and brings my lips back to hers.

"You and me are talking about this in the morning," Mike warned before closing the door and taking whatever girl he had to bed.

For the rest of our time together that night, neither I nor Bella talked about what happened. Instead, we went for round two.

* * *

In the morning, Bella got dressed and claimed that she had to leave to finish off some homework. I frowned and pleaded with her to stay, but she just kissed my forehead with what seemed like no difficulty whatsoever before she left. I pouted and retreated to the couch, deciding to try and reach where I was last night on Skyrim before I died.

My gaming time was cut short though when Mike's girl scampered out of the house with Mike following her to shut the door. He was clad in his plain grey boxer shorts, a sight I didn't want to see at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning. Once the girl was gone and Mike's coffee was made, he plopped down on the couch next to me and glared at me as his sipped his drink. After ten minutes of concentration, he finally spoke.

"How the fuck did you get Bella Swan into your bed?" He asked, not bothering to beat around the bush. I sighed and paused the game, putting down the controller. "I mean, it's at least _believable _if someone like me or Tyler got her to break. But you? A geeky weirdo who runs away from attention? That is some messed up shit. What did you do? Pay her? Blackmail her? Come on, give me some tips." I bit back a growl as I listened to him talking about Bella so degradingly. He thought that there was even a slight possibility that you could pay Bella like she was some trampy prostitute.

"I didn't pay her," I snapped. "I'm not blackmailing her either."

He rolled his eyes and looked up to the heavens for some sort of assistance. "Sure. Just make sure you tell me when you end it. Isabella Swan is finally putting out, and I wanna get in there before the rest of the rabble figure out what's going on." He made an act of relaxing into his seat with the mug in one hand and the remote in the other to change to TV, where _Matrix _was playing. I stared at him as if he'd grown two heads as he peacefully watched Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne on the screen.

"She's not an object you can just give up and pass along!" I spat. "I'm not playing fucking pass the parcel here! She has a right to who she wants to go out with! You can't just... just... plan for her to fall for you if she decides to end everything!" This bastard was really annoying me. His eyes widened at my outburst, but he also smiled, smelling an easy victory.

"Okay, okay calm down, Dork." He said like the arrogant jackass he is, raising his hands in fake innocence and surrender. "But honestly. How did you get her to sleep with you? Mind control of something? Give me your mystic spell or whatever the shit you play with is."

I gritted my teeth together. "She was - _is_ – with me willingly. She's my girlfriend." The words came out as an almost silent mumble, but Mike seemed to hear them loud and clear. He bolted onto his feet, coming really close to letting the mug in his hands crash to the ground.

"What?" He shrieked, looking over to me with horror filled eyes. "So... you... you get to have her whenever you want?" I rolled my eyes in disgust at how he saw the term 'girlfriend', but I nodded anyway. "You fucking bastard! How the fuck did she choose you over me? Or anyone else is this goddamn school apart from those other geeks you know." He yanked at his dyed blonde hair. "It doesn't make sense. There's a flipping formula to how the female mind works, and going out with geeks isn't included in it." Damn, I thought he was stupid, but a formula to the female mind? Really? Where does he get these ideas?

I snorted. "Good luck figuring it out, genius." I myself couldn't believe that Bella could even consider going out with me, but I was more than happy that she liked me as I liked her. Screw that, she loved me!

Crap, I needed to see her. I peered up at the clock and saw that it was just about twelve. Would Bella want some lunch to get away from her homework? I searched the pros and cons of staying here, and after just a few seconds, leaving seemed like a much better idea. I lifted myself off of the couch before putting on and hoodie and opening the door, walking through it. I could hear Mike storming after me, but I just quickened my step and was down the stairs in seconds. As I walked through the community door, Mike shouted down the stairwell. "You're going to her house, aren't you?" I chuckled. He sounded like an old, jealous wife.

"Sure am." I agreed, closing the door behind me and jogging over to the over building. It was lightly raining outside, so I wanted to get inside quickly. Once I reached the doorbells, I pushed Bella's number and awaited her reply.

She didn't make me wait for too long, though she was breathless when she answered. "Hello?"

"It's Edward," I said quietly, but loud enough so that she could hear me. I was sort of embarrassed that I was knocking for her like this, but the sound of her giggle lifted the embarrassment a little. She let me in and I practically ran up the stairs and to her open door. I grinned at her before wrapping my arms around her and kissing her lips lightly before adding more pressure.

She stepped backwards, allowing me further inside her apartment. I closed the door behind me and pushed her over to the couch, letting her fall onto it. She laughed. "Is this really what you came over to do?" She asked, raising her eyebrows at me. I could tell that she was joking, but I did freak out a bit. I strolled in here and now I was basically rubbing against her on her couch. I froze and my face heated up a bit. "Its fine, Edward." Bella assured me, running her hand through my hair before pulling me back down to her.

We remained like that for some time, not really making any moves to repeat what we did last night. I mean, I wanted to, but I just didn't want to rush her into doing it again. Does that make sense? Maybe it's just me. But when memories of last night came rushing back, I realised something crucial that I had forgotten. How could I have been so stupid?

My hands, at the time, were stuffed up her cream colored vest, so it was noticeable when I froze yet again. "What's wrong, Edward?" Bella asked, sitting up slightly to kiss my forehead.

"I... um... uh..." I stammered, trying to find some way to bring it up.

She rolled her eyes and sat up completely, shoving me so I was sitting down as well. "Well? Spit it out."

"I... I forgot to put on a... condom, last night." I whispered looking down. That didn't help too much, seeing as now I was now staring down her vest, but eh. What were you gonna do? My eyes just couldn't help but rest in that position. Bella's fingers returned to their actions of running through the strands of my unruly hair, slowly lifting my head so my eyes returned to hers. They may have been removed from their favourite spot, but Bella's deep chocolate eyes were barely something to settle with.

"I'm on the pill," She claimed, palming my cheek. "And I have no diseases or anything... I mean, I haven't done anything like this since... since the high school incident."

"It wasn't about the diseases, but okay," I told her, kissing her nose. She giggled, and removed my glasses, sliding them down my own nose before placing them on a little table beside her couch. "Are you okay without using them? I mean, I can go and get some if it would make you feel more comfortable..." I trailed off, only wanting to make sure that I wasn't pushing her into anything.

She shook her head at me and sighed, leaning back against the cushions and pulling me along with her. I took that as a no and continued to kiss her, only to be interrupted by my sister crashing through the door. "Fantastic," I mumbled.

* * *

**Okay, this took a little while since I kinda started on a new fanfic... **

**I'm not planning to fire out too many chapters of 'Dragonborn's Love' since not a lot of people are reading it and I already have two other fanfics to finish, but if anyone wants to see into the world of Skyrim through the fanfic, you should read it. I'm starting with the storyline of the game, but once Edward reaches Whiterun, he meets Bella!**

**So will you guys give it a chance? Huh? Maybe give me some reviews? **


	16. We Meet Again

**BPOV**

The past two days with Edward have been amazing. I didn't really expect for us to go that far on that night, but I was more than ready to inform Edward of my feelings, and... Well... I was ready to do what we did that night. Ever since Paul stomped on my heart after I put out, I'd had a bad impression on being so intimate with another guy. Whilst I was being raised, my mother told me repeatedly that men were no good, unsurprisingly that was after she and my father had their divorce. When everything with Paul occurred, I began to believe her. But Edward was different. He loved me for me, and had no problem listing what he loved about me when he was inside me. Well, he took a few minutes to speak once he was no longer a virgin, but he got there.

The next day, he came round to my apartment and we ended up making out on the couch for awhile until his sister, Rosalie, burst through the door. "Why does every guy I date turn out to be a spaz?" She cried when she walked in. My eyes were wide when her gaze fell onto our tangled bodies and she groaned loudly. "And now my nerdy brother has a better love life then me! The world hates me, I swear!" I giggled at her quietly, making Edward smile.

"What do you want, Rose?" Edward mumbled from his space between my shoulder and neck. He started kissing and nipping up to my throat, totally ignoring our intruder. "I'm a little busy here." I laughed at that one, but Edward didn't move from his spot. He seemed pretty content where he was. "I'm serious." He lifts his head and pouts slightly, but not enough that he could persuade me to force his big sister out.

Rose seemed gobsmacked as she stood still at the end of the couch. "Have you two...? Is Edward...?" I nodded and Rose sort of squealed at the news.

"My brother's no longer a virgin." She stated, plopping down on the couch's armrest. "I never thought I'd see the day." Edward, now understanding that there was no way that we would be continuing our previous activities, sat up in frustration. He repositioned himself unwillingly on the couch, helping me up so I was upright, but leaning against him. I reached over to take his glasses from the small table they had been placed on and he thanked me almost silently, putting them on and accepting defeat.

"So what's troubling you, sis?" He asked, tightening his hold on me before burying his nose in my hair. He obviously didn't really want to listen to her problems.

Rose sighed heavily. "I went out on like, five dates this week and I've found no one like that Emmett guy from the club." My eyebrows shot up at this news. Edward's movements were frozen for some unknown reason. I peered down at him and he shrugged at my questioning look, hiding something. "I wish there was some way that I could find him again." Edward cleared his throat then, and it was obvious that he knew something about this. I looked at him pointedly, forcing him to spill. He looked like he was fighting himself against saying anything, but he would do anything for me, as he had said yesterday.

Edward coughed. "He may have... um... given me his phone number to give to you that night..."

"What?" Rose shrieked, bolting up onto her feet. "Where's his number then? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I forgot about it until now. But, I put the paper in a pair of jeans that I washed..." He trailed off, hiding in my hair from the impending hurricane. "The scrap is probably shrivelled up and incoherent now." Rose then went into a full blown tantrum – one I've never seen her in before. She screamed, she jumped around blindly and kicked the side of my poor couch. Edward's lips were next to my ear, his breath running down my neck. "Save me, Bella, please." He begged, looking up at me with a full out and puppy dog eyes. Crap, this is the moment I'd been dreading. Of course, there was no way out of this. I was going to have to stop Rose from freaking out and beating up my little geek. I ran my hand through his tousled bronze hair to calm him before I spoke.

"It was an honest mistake, Rose. It could have happened to anyone." I told her and I heard an almost muted thanks from Edward. I continued to stroke his hair, an action that I knew he loved. He snuggled into my side like a cat, and if we weren't in this situation, I was sure that he would start purring. "Now please stop destroying my house." I pleaded.

"But now I'll never find him!" She wailed, and I was now worried about the neighbours. I sighed and figured that the only way to get her out of my apartment was to give her a way to find that Emmett guy.

I wrecked my brain for an answer, but I eventually discovered one. "Maybe he's a regular at the club? You could go there again and look for him," I suggested, hoping that that idea would get her out the door. Luckily her jumping and kicking ceased at my words and her eyes widened.

"That's it! Thanks Bella! I've got to go and get ready!" She sped off and I shut and locked the door behind her, relieved that she didn't ask me to go with her. If Emmett was there, there's a chance his creepy friend would be too, and I didn't really want to see him ever again. I breathed a small chuckle when I saw that Edward was still sitting on the couch, his right leg bouncing in anticipation. He looked up and smiled at me before standing up and embracing me.

His fingers traced my jaw as his lips pressed against my cheek. "Can we continue?" He asked in a small whisper, pulling me ever so slowly back to the couch. I laughed at him slightly before nodding. We spent the rest of the day and night in each other's arms, whether it be making love or watching TV during our 'breaks'. For a nerd, he was insatiable.

* * *

**EPOV**

On Monday morning, I was up and ready to greet Bella at her doorstep. Surprisingly, and I mean really damn surprisingly, Mike was dressed and packed at the same time as me. I guess that he didn't get any over the weekend due to low self-esteem when he found out his geeky roommate had claimed the girl he had been chasing with his fake charm and one track mind. Well, I couldn't say that I didn't like being close to Bella in that way – that would be a lie – but I didn't go after every girl in sight. I was just thankful that he didn't follow me to pick up Bella. I wouldn't have resisted trying to take him down if he tried anything with my Bella.

Yes. _Mine._ There was now no chance in Hell that Mike would be touching Bella ever again.

Unfortunately, later that day, I walked in on him trying.

My last class before lunch had just ended, and I was walking to the lunch room. I strolled past Finn and Simon, seeing that they were speaking about a new game in the shops, not noticing me walk by. I really wanted to remain their friend, which I thought I was. Maybe they just needed time without me. That was a thing, right? Anyway, when I walked into the cafeteria and grabbed a small meal of chips, I walked outside to find that Mike was blocking Bella's path to my bench, where we normally sat these days. He had the likes of Tyler behind him, watching as Mike tried to woo Bella into going out with him.

"You could do so much better, Bella," I heard as I got closer, "I'll bet that he's no more than a tic-tac down there. Maybe you should come round to my place later tonight and I can show you a real man," The group of boys behind Mike howled with laughter at Mike's words, completely oblivious to the daggers I was glaring at all of them. I stormed over there before wrapping my arms gently around Bella, placing feather light kisses along her neck, up to her pulse point, making her shiver.

"She's fine for tonight, I think Mike," I practically growled. Bella's hand snaked behind her to grab my neck, forcing me to increase the pressure of my kisses.

The look on Mike's face was priceless. "Bella, you're passing on a once in a lifetime opportunity here," He warned, his gaze focused fully on my girlfriend.

Bella snorted slightly and released her hold on my neck, but I didn't stop kissing her. "Knowing you, Mike, you'll keep on asking me until you finally give up on this little fantasy to have in your mind. I hardly call that something you only get once in a lifetime." I chuckled and started pulling her away, rounding the group until we go to the bench. My small tray of chips was resting on her stomach throughout our encounter, and she reached out to grab one as I let her go. I shot a look at her and she shrugged. "I only got an apple for lunch."

I thought it through and shrugged, figuring that even if I were starving to death, I would still give her all of the chips. After she swallowed, she stood on her tip-toes to kiss me quickly before pulling away. "Thanks for saving me, Edward." She thanked, letting her fingers caress my cheek. I placed the tray on the bench table before gathering her up in my arms and pulling her lips back to mine.

"I love you," I whispered after breaking apart, keeping my forehead touching hers. I was afraid that my glasses would get in the way, so I pulled away slightly.

Her face brightened up at my words. "I love you too, Edward." I was about to kiss her again when we were interrupted by Mike terrible imitation of Bella's voice.

"I love you too, Edward." He screeched, making kissing noises that were completely unrealistic. Everyone apart from Tyler had left him to rot in embarrassment, but even Tyler looked as if he were mentally debating whether to stay or go. "You two are idiots. College is for a thing called _fun._ Not commitment and love! Jeez, Eddie, if I had a relationship with every girl I slept with, I'd have over twenty of pointless girls following me around."

"Give it up, Mike." I snapped, tugging Bella back to me. I kissed her until we were both breathless and Mike had left in a huff.

Later that day, we were sitting in Bella's apartment watching TV when Rose burst through the door... again. "I found him! Bella! You're a genius!" Rose screamed, pulling Bella away from me and into a hug. I scowled at Rose, and pouted at Bella to come back to me after they withdrew. She smiled and spread her arms open wide for me, inviting me into them. I went willingly, snuggling up to her and tightening my grip on her. She giggled but before we could say anything, we heard footsteps at the door. "Oh, um... You two don't mind that I brought him along with me, do you?"

We both looked up to see the man himself walk through the door. "He gave me his number again on Saturday night and I invited him over today! And he brought his friend, Jasper." Then there was that blonde guy that kept smiling at my Bella standing behind Emmett. I growled lightly, only alerting Bella. She ran her fingers through my hair at the back of my head, and I sort of felt like a cat. Eh, who cared? Where I was sitting right now was more comfortable than anything in the world.

Emmett, upon seeing us, announced my thoughts aloud. "What is he? Your pet or something?" He asked Bella, leaning down to ruffle my hair. I glared at him and my hold on Bella became more desperate. I knew she loved me, but a guy like him or Jasper could take her away from me. And that thought made me protective.

Rose shrugged. "He's had a crush on her since they were both five. We only discovered his feelings for her a few weeks ago." She sat in an armchair, only to stand up so Emmett could sit before she sat on his lap. Feeling a little awkward, the Jasper guy perched on the armrest of the couch, right next to Bella. He grinned at her and my glares weren't unseen, yet he didn't back off. I sat up, still gripping Bella, so if he decided to make a move on her, I could put her on the other side of the couch.

Emmett and Jasper stayed and talked for awhile before they had to leave. I was partly grateful that I wouldn't be obliged to see Jasper again, but then Emmett suggested that we all go to the night club and celebrate Rose and his new relationship. I mentally begged Bella to deny, but unfortunately, her constant politeness couldn't be held back as she accepted.

Great, another night with every guy in the room staring at _my _Bella.

* * *

**I hoped you liked it!**

**If anyone reading this reads my other fanfic, Dragonborn's love, please give it a review!**

**And give this a review too!**


	17. Final Epiphany

**EPOV**

Why did I have to have an older sister?

I swear things could be so much easier for me if I were an only child. Sure, I wouldn't have been able to share my feelings for Bella on my own, so of course I may not be having these bliss filled days with her, but Rose also brought a leering blonde guy into the apartment and along with us to the night club where he could endlessly stare at my beautiful girlfriend, as well as the multiple other drunks there.

Because of the invitation being so sudden, Rosalie didn't get a chance to take Bella out for another shopping trip – for which Bella was eternally thankful – so Bella was clad in some dark blue skinny jeans and a dark green top. She looked absolutely stunning in my eyes, but I had the possessive urge to grasp her hand and make a run for my apartment so I could have her all to myself. Emmett had a Jeep, the sort you would expect to use when driving over rough terrain, and we all squeezed into it, with Rose and Emmett at the front, and the three of us in the back three seats. Although I wanted to put myself in the middle seat to prevent anymore ogling of my Bella, I figured that it would be a little weird to ask Bella to move over to the seat next to the door.

When we parked outside the night club, I asked Emmett how he kept the car from being stolen. "Built this Jeep myself, so, I installed a roof to go over it. Kinda like those old cars." He replied, and demonstrated when we were all out of the Jeep. The way the roof folded over the car looked really weird, but it wasn't going to be my fault if the monster of a car is swiped.

Upon entering the dark and noisy club, everything went basically as it did when we were last here. I sat over at the bar, slowly sipping on a Coke with a lemon wedge on the edge of the glass rim, only this time, Emmett and Jasper were dancing with my sister and Bella. I wasn't too bothered about being the overprotective brother, as I could see that it wasn't likely that Emmett would harm Rose in any way, and if he tried, she could take care of herself. My eyes were plastered on Bella and Jasper as I watched him try to dance closer to her, but she retreated from his advances. I was about to step up and throw her over my shoulder Caveman style, but was stopped by a high pitched voice behind me.

"Hey, do you know that blonde guy?" The bartender asked. She was sort of petite, with spiky dark hair and greyish eyes, reminding me of a pixie. I hadn't seen her here earlier, so I guessed that she had just rotated shifts with the male worker recently.

I snorted. "Yeah I know him. He's trying to flirt with my girlfriend," I mumbled quietly, but even over the loud music in the room, she heard me and nodded, seeming focused on the man in question.

"Do you know if he's single?" She asked bluntly, surprising me somewhat.

I rubbed the back of my head. "I'm not the person to ask, really. But, the way he's attempting to dance with Bella, makes me think he's on the market." The bit about dancing with Bella came out in a growl, and I peered over my shoulder to see Bella walking over to me. She smiled as she got closer, but her eyebrows furrowed when she saw who I was talking to. I turned and enveloped her in my arms when she was close enough. "Don't go near him again," I plead in a mumble and she giggled.

"Possessive, are we Edward?" She laughed and I nodded seriously, ignoring her joking voice and zoning in on Jasper as he tried to dance with the next girl without a guy near her. She was drunk out of her mind, and I felt a little sad for her as she wouldn't know what hit her, but I was extremely grateful that his victim was no longer Bella.

"Yes," I admitted without hesitation, taking my eyes off of Jasper and his new interest and gazing at her. The flashing colors in the room reflected off of her gorgeous eyes, surrounding the familiar chocolate with shades of green, red and blue. She looked at me with a questioning look on her face, her eyes darting over to the bartender I was talking to as if she thought that perhaps something was going on whilst she was otherwise occupied. I shook my head slightly, hoping that the woman hadn't caught onto our silent conversation, but we had no such luck.

"Don't worry, Penny," she said from behind me, "I'm not trying to steal your boyfriend."

Bella sat on the empty stool beside me and turned to her. "Penny?" She questioned.

She shrugged. "I like giving nicknames. I mentally gave him the name Leonard because he reminds me of the guy from The Big Bang Theory. And Leonard was always possessive with Penny even when he was dating that Indian guy's sister." She leaned over to one side so that she could see behind me and over to Jasper. "And that hottie dancing over there just earned himself the title of Honey bunny." We stared at her and she held up her hands in fake surrender. "The color of his hair is honey blonde!"

Bella shook her head and laughed before jutting out her hand to shake the pixies. "Hi, I'm Bella and this is Edward," she greeted.

The pixie returned the gesture with a grin on her face. "I'm Alice. Could you by any chance give my number to Honey bunny over there?"

Bella giggled. "I'll just tell him to come over here. We've got to leave sooner or later anyway." She skipped off and retrieved Jasper from his spot where he was whispering things into the drunken girl's ear. He looked annoyed at my girlfriend, and he began to protest at the interruption before he realised that he was about to be set up with Alice. "Jasper, this is Alice, Alice, this is Jasper. He's a friend of Edward's sister's boyfriend." She explained awkwardly.

Once again, Alice's main trait shone through clearly, surprising me greatly. "Hey Sexy." She said, smiling brightly at Jasper who seemed to be enjoying the greeting he was getting from Alice. "Whatcha up to tonight other than making me jealous as you let other girls rub up against ya?" I spluttered a little at her words, keeping quiet so no one would hear the noise. I knew that they weren't directed at me – and thank god that they weren't – but I wondered how such a small woman could be like that. Just saying what's on their mind without worrying about the reaction. It was admirable, in a way.

Rose stumbled over with Emmett supporting most of her weight, one of her hands was filled with three beer empty glasses whilst the other was wrapped around her new boyfriend's neck. "Hey guys, I wanna get outta here right now, and either you're coming or we're ditching you!" She pointed at us dramatically. Jasper outright ignored Rose's outburst, and kept chatting up Alice.

Bella stood and pulled on her jacket. "I'm ready to go. Edward?" I nodded and got up to assist her with her jacket, before jerking my head toward Jasper and Alice.

Emmett shrugged. "He does this a lot. Don't worry, he'll find a way home." He assured us before leading us out to the car.

The drive back to the block I called home was quiet for the most part. Bella kept her eyes on the passing streetlights whilst I concentrated on the texture of her silky hair and the strawberry and freesia scent of her skin. When I noticed her shiver, I took my own jacket off and handed it to her, not caring about freezing to death if it kept her warm. She smiled widely at the gesture and leaned into my side, lying part of the dark blue material on me, although it didn't make much of a difference. The air whooshing past us still raised goose bumps on my skin.

Gazing down at Bella - who was watching as the world we lived in shot passed her in a colourful blur – I recalled the time before my feelings became known about Bella. I used to observe her from afar, examining the way she spoke to people, especially guys as I wanted to understand my competition. I remembered trying to name every individual shade in her hair, ranging from chestnut to almond, and I remembered planning a way to approach her, to try and split her away from her friends so I wouldn't be made fun of for asking her out, but those plans never worked out. I recalled being eight, and placing a small daffodil on her desk at school, yet she never knew it was me. In fact, every year on her birthday until the age of eleven, I used to put more and more flowers at her doorstep, although I never heard her mention it at school. I figured that she had just thrown them away.

Looking back at all of this, I came to a realization that I had surely come to a long time ago. I loved this amazing, beautiful woman and I wanted her for my wife. It seemed like the perfect thing to do in my mind. We had shared something… incredible, and I could think of nothing that could assist in my survival if she left. I would have to make it as romantic as possible, rose petals, candles, and a fancy dinner – the works. It would have to be perfect, just like she was. My cheesiness knows no bounds, and there was no way to prevent my brain from producing it.

The ring… where could I get a ring good enough for her? I didn't have much money on me, but my parents might. I didn't want to ask them for anything, but it was either that, or getting a job, which could cost me months of working just to get half the money I would need. I wondered if the ICT help line that ran in the college would have a spare space for me to work straight away.

But even if I mentioned my intention on proposing to Bella to my mother, she wouldn't let me earn the money myself. She was overly enthusiastic, as earlier proved, so she would spend every dime she had to pay for the ring and or wedding. Although, I hoped it didn't come to that. There was also the question, would she say yes? Would I have my hopes up just to have them knocked back down? No, Bella wasn't like that. She had a kind heart and a beautiful soul. Even if she were to say no – which I prayed she wouldn't – she would put it in the kindest way possible, and I would keep trying until she said yes willingly.

Perhaps I could do this over the summer. I mean, I had three weeks with her until she departed to visit her mother's home before September, so I had that much time to balk up and ask her. I grinned in satisfaction at my plan, hoping that nobody saw my expression.

But little did I know, my conniving sibling caught the smile, and as I could read hers, she read it perfectly. She wanted not to ruin mine and Bella's relationship, but to make sure we were both willing participants in what we did. And Rose, being Rose, had plotted to make sure her aim became known and fulfilled.

* * *

**BPOV**

It was the weekend before the end of the school year, and I was nervous. I still had that diving competition to prepare for, and it was only a few days away. My time with Edward had been depleted, and my days at the swimming pool had risen through the roof. When I finally got back to my apartment after a full day's hard training, my legs felt as if they were jelly and my skin was extra pruney.

One day, when I had completely mastered one of the more complicated dives, I bumped into Rose as I exited the changing rooms. "Hey, Rose. What's up?" She never showed up to my diving sessions, so this was a little out of the ordinary. Mike and his gang had actually given up on stalking me, so the seats were gratefully empty whilst I practiced.

Rosalie let out a huge breath before she spoke. "Look, I've been holding this off for a while now, but you have to understand something." I nodded, a look of confusion on my face. She glanced around rapidly before leading me outside where there was absolutely nobody to hear us. I worried about what could possibly be happening, but before I could question her, she cut me off. "I can't explain exactly what's going on, but here's the moral – quick and simple. You know the tale of the hare and the tortoise?" I nodded. "If you feel like the hare is something in your life, and you're the tortoise, moving more slowly than the speeding hare, you can set the speed yourself. There's no need to catch up to the hare because that's what you're expected to do." I frowned in a deeper confusion than I was in before, but she shook her head. "You'll understand soon. I promise."

And with that, she turned on her heel and sped off. I deciphered what she had said, and sort of understood the meaning, but the reason behind the words had me lost. Why would she tell me something like that? Maybe my school life was going too fast and she wanted me to take a break from everything?

It was still light when I started walking back to my apartment, and I expected my day to be relatively quiet. I thought of telling Edward about his sister's little rant, but I decided against it, figuring that Rose may not want him to know. Otherwise, she would have told me at home with Edward present, instead of going through the hassle to wait for me after diving. Musing over her words, I didn't realise that I was walking right into the direction of Jessica and Lauren. Usually, I diverted from my normal path to ignore people like them, but I was in the middle of the park, and walking off of the path and onto the grass randomly seemed to obvious. I was determined to just round them and not make a big deal of it, but luck wasn't on my side today.

"Oh, hey Bella." Jessica snarled, blocking my path. "We were just talking about you. More specifically about your boyfriend."

What could they possibly be telling each other about? They knew nothing about mine and Edward's relationship, and they had barely even spoken to Edward. "We were just wondering when you and him would be splitting? These sorts of things never work out, and to be honest, we wanted a little go with him."

I scowled at the two of them. "Well I can tell you now that we're not exactly planning on leaving each other just yet." I was about to say more but Jessica broke me off.

"As I said, these things just don't last. I mean, you must have some experience with that. We all know what happened with… Paul, was it? You give your heart out to guys and they throw it on the ground and stomp on it." When they were done, they strutted away from me down the opposite direction from where I was going.

How much more confusing and agitating could this day get?

* * *

**Hey guys, sorry for the delay. The Power supply blew up in my computer and stopped working altogether. But here the chapter is! Finally…**

**I have a little dilemma I need solving, and I could use your help. I need to decide whether or not I should make this story longer than originally planned. Do you guys prefer that the story stay shorter as planned or should it be longer? Vote on my profile :D**


	18. Blocks, Blocks And More Blocks!

**EPOV**

It was about a week into the holidays, and I was resting on my childhood bed in my room. Like my bedroom in the apartment, this place similarly had Star wars and The Elder Scrolls plastered all over the walls, as well as a Matrix poster and a couple of Star treks. Here, I kept the more prized possessions I own, such as a dragon sculpture – mint condition – of the powerful Alduin, first born of the great god Akatosh. He's the bad guy in the game Skyrim, but he looked so cool that I couldn't resist buying him for over two hundred dollars. Call me crazy, but he was truly a masterpiece.

Also in the room, I had things ranging from light sabers to models of the Starship Enterprise. I was kind of afraid to show Bella the place that I grew up as I was infatuated with her in those early, and basically most of the years since I'd known her. My mother hadn't removed the geeky bedspread that I picked when I was nine. Okay, it was a Minecraft duvet, with multiple creeper faces on it with a background of green. Being honest, I wanted the Minecraft periodic table duvet, but we couldn't find it anywhere on EBay.

Bella won the diving competition against the other college, although I didn't catch their name. She was amazing. A swan dive turned into a triple somersault, and she wowed the judges, effectively imprinting looks of jealousy from her fellow divers and the opposing school. She was shining brighter than the stars when she was handed the trophy on behalf of her team, and I was sitting in the audience, wanting to jump over the railing so I could pull her into a hug and congratulate her. There were also a few other things I wanted to do whilst she was in her swimwear, but it's best not to talk about those fantasies.

So there I was, in my room filled with everything geek, waiting until the luminous moon clock on the wall chimed two so I could pick Bella up and bring her over to officially meet my parents as my girlfriend. When they learned of our new relationship, mom was over the moon, practically bouncing off of the walls. Dad was a little more questioning, probably wondering to himself how such a thing could have developed over the time I had last seen them at the hotel. Mom and dad were sort of thrilled and confused of my intention to propose to Bella – that conversation had been long and awkward to say the least – but they were happy nonetheless. Mom had agreed to take me shopping out in Seattle to buy the ring, and I planned to pop the question on the weekend before Bella was due to leave for her mother's. Doing it that night meant I had a good excuse for making everything romantic and fancy, so it wasn't _too _obvious.

5...4...3...2...1... The clock hand moved so it was directly above the number two, and I was finally granted access to drive over to Bella's. She said anytime around two, but I was too much of a perfectionist to be anything less than on the dot. I hopped into my shiny Volvo, the car I had been given once I got my driver's license, and I sped off down the quiet roads of Forks. It was a Friday – a week since the end of the semester - so there wasn't much happening which was the norm for a place like this. I counted only three cars that weren't parked as I drove to chief Swan's house. I was shaking as I got closer and closer, my mind running through every possible outcome of mine and Bella's father's meeting. So far, the scariest of possibility's was that he would pull out a shotgun and blow my head to bits. It seemed unlikely now, but when he finds out that I slept with his daughter... well, it sounds a little more believable.

I pulled up behind the familiar police cruiser in the driveway before getting out of the car. During high school, Mike and his friends got into a lot of trouble by messing with the teachers enough that the authorities had to be called. One time, Tyler drove into the school parking lot and slipped on the ice, almost causing his truck to collide with the old Chevy Bella used to drive. Thank god she was finishing homework in the library when it all happened; otherwise I would have gone through a dramatic breakdown.

After walking up to the door,I managed to knock once before the door was thrown open wildly and Bella chucked herself at me, locking her arms tightly around my neck. I wrapped my arms around her tiny waist and held her to me, seeking her lips with mine. We hadn't had time to be with one another like this since the night of her diving competition, so I predicted that she was as desperate as I was right now. I kissed her for a good two minutes before we broke away panting. My thoughts caught up with me and I realised that perhaps my first meeting with chief Swan might occur when I was with his daughter in such a way so I pulled back, trying to be a gentleman.

"Don't worry; Charlie's upstairs in his room. He won't hold things like this against you as long as he doesn't witness it." She promised me, kissing my nose and fiddling with my hair. She led me to the small blue couch in her living room which was covered in a matching afghan, and she sat me down. "Do you need a drink, Edward? You look parched." I nodded, figuring that I might make this go smoother if I wasn't shaking and panicking like this, and maybe a drink could calm me down.

She handed me a glass of orange soda, and I drunk it fairly quickly, loving the familiar taste. I used to drink it all the time before I braved Mountain dew whilst I played on my computer, and it was refreshing at the same time as it tickled the back of my throat if I drunk too quickly. I held my urge to choke when I gulped the beverage down too fast, and I only coughed a few times, stopping before the reason for my unease strolled into the room in his police uniform, an obvious plot to intimidate me, and let me tell you now, it was working.

"So, Edward. Your parents live in Forks, don't they? Carlisle and Esme Cullen?" I nodded, attempting to avoid eye contact with him. He smiled at the fact he could petrify me so easily. "You went to school with Bella whilst you were young and in high school? That's a lot of history."

I cleared my throat. "We didn't really talk much," I spluttered, trying to use breathing techniques to prevent a possible panic attack, but so far it wasn't helping too much.

The intimidating talk carried on for the next hour. Bella repeatedly tried to stop her father's constant questions that made me hesitate, and I could hear him mutter 'weakling' under his breath a few times, but he didn't doubt my loyalty to Bella. When he was finally done, I led Bella out to my Volvo and helped her in before getting in myself and driving away. Once we were down the road and out of sight, I let out a deep breath and told myself that it was all over, and that I wouldn't have to go through anything as intense and frightening as that again.

"I'm surprised." Bella said conversationally. "The way you were shaking made me think that you were about to explode before blasting out of the house through the ceiling." She giggled and I chuckled slightly.

"Is your dad always like... that?" I asked hesitantly, afraid to offend her in any way, but she just laughed some more.

"With guys he is. I mean, with Paul..." She trailed off.

I shook my head, turning into the three mile long driveway toward my house. "You don't have to talk about him if you don't want to. I saw your face whenever the subject of him came up in high school." I mumbled, hoping she didn't hear the last part about seeing her face when people started talking about Paul. I didn't want her to think I was too much of an obsessed freak.

"It's fine. That happened ages ago, and talking about him doesn't hurt much. If I were to see him again... well, I can tell you that it wouldn't go down well. He went all the way to Alaska, and his family moved over to Chicago, so there's no chance of seeing him again." She clarified, smiling brightly at me as I pulled over in front of my house. I nodded and kissed her cheek before getting out and opening the door for her.

I leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Just warning you that my mom is a _little_ over enthusiastic. Don't be surprised if she baked a cake and threw a party in honour of you." I kissed the soft skin beneath her ear and took her hand.

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**BPOV**

Weirdly enough, Mrs. Cullen, or Esme as she had asked me to call her, actually did make me a cake. Thankfully, it was chocolate, my favourite flavour, and it even had tiny milk and white chocolate chips scattered all over the top. I couldn't thank Esme enough for what she put into it but she just waved me off and assured me that it was no problem at all.

I spent the day exploring Edward's room, taking in the various posters and figurines that he had around. Personally, I thought they were just toys, but if he was the sort of person who enjoyed these things, even at his age, I wouldn't object. His duvet set was enough to make me laugh though. I remember playing Minecraft when it was only the Alpha version and it kinda sucked. I think I still had my account, actually, but I don't think I would be playing again anytime soon. When Edward asked what I was thinking about I told him that I used to, and probably still had, a Minecraft account. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, he leaped to the computer resting on a wooden desk on the other side of the room.

"What are you doing?" I inquired, hesitantly stepping over to him.

He shyly turned in his chair – one of the chairs with wheels – and his face was tinted pink. "I kinda wanted to play with you on a server I created. You don't have to, but I thought it would be fun..." I giggled but nodded, wondering how we were going to play with just one computer. He beamed at me before pulling me to him and letting me sit on the comfy chair. He quickly went and retrieved a laptop and placed it in the empty space on the desk beside the monitor before he booted it up and logged into Minecraft himself. The new launcher wasn't too bad, and I remembered my login details pretty clearly, even after all this time.

My skin (The way your character looks) was fairly simple. I had taken a pre-made skin and altered it to look like me, although I thought that I should probably change it, as everyone I saw now had headsets and hoodies. Edward's server was packed with loads of characters, which sort of slowed the computer down as well as the laptop, but Edward fixed the 'lag', as he called it in no time.

His hand shot through his hair as he stared at the screen. "Wow, who knew that Finn was so much of a genius? When I started College, I let him take control of the place, and then there were only, like, three to seven people on at the same time." I was a little confused, but went along with him anyway, trying to identify the new things that had been added. Edward pointed out 'Survival Games', which was pretty much the same as the film, but with a slight name change and it was made up of blocks. There were also a couple more mini games including 'Hide and Seek' and 'Skyblock'.

Surprisingly, the short time that I played on it had me hooked. Edward and I went on the Factions part of the server, where we created a small group that either I or Edward would be able to add people to. We collected materials and dug down deep into the ground before claiming the land and making a base. Apparently, creating a base underground reduces the chance of us getting 'raided' by other people on the server, but if walking over the piece of land says that it's ours, won't they suspect something and start digging down? I guess they can't do that unless they overthrow us with more power, as Edward explained, but even though this was just a mere game, I was still worried about all of the ore we had collected from a whole two hours of playing.

And, for some reason, guys on the server seemed to like flirting with girls. I was at the shop, trying to sell a few stacks of cobblestone I had mined, and this guy came up to me and started doing this crouching thing. I considered asking Edward about what this guy was doing, but I let it go until he sent me a private message. "Are you single? You wanna go out?" I thought that it was idiotic to even ask something like that online, but when Edward peered over at my screen and saw the message, he started furiously tapping on the keyboard of the laptop, and in a matter of seconds, he was next to me, glaring at the guy. Edward was in diamond armour, the best armour in the game, from which he made with all the diamonds we collected. Then he started messaging the guy, Ironmods was his Minecraft name, to stay away from me.

The whole experience made me laugh uncontrollably, and soon enough, Ironmods was out of the safety of the shop and out in the wild, where he was brutally slaughtered multiple times by Edward.

So far, the summer holidays had been perfect. Even if it meant that I would be gaming for most of it. Watching Edward get jealous over someone like Ironmods was priceless.

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**Yay! Minecraft! I'm not the only girl that plays that, right? Anyway, Ironmods is actually this creepy guy that plays on my cousins server xD he starts being all lovey dovey on every person with a girl skin that logs in. He even changed his skin to Leonard from the Big Bang Theory because of me. Let's just say, that character doesn't look too great as a Minecraft skin, and I will never be going near him again, unless I wish to stab a diamond sword into his head xD Completely normal...**

**Oh, and by the way guys, I need an editor. Someone to read through my chapters before they're posted. PM me if you want to help, as I'm just one of those people who cannot be bothered to go through my own work after writing it xD**


	19. Plans

**Quick question: Are my stories getting gradually better, by which I mean by the writing style and the storyline? Of course, I'm just planning anything that comes to mind onto paper before typing** **out a first chapter, so the storylines aren't too strong yet, but is my writing getting any better? Please review and tell me what you think!**

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**BPOV**

After playing on the grand game of Minecraft for most of the afternoon, we were finally called downstairs for dinner. As we sat down around the large, glossy wooden table, I remembered a missing family member. "When's Rose coming back from Emmett's house?" I asked Edward whilst Esme fetched her husband along with our meal of Spaghetti Bolognese.

He chuckled as his thoughts turned to his absent sister. "She called yesterday, begging mom and dad to let her stay at his parents, but mom wants the whole family here whilst we're off school. They should both be here in a couple of day's tops." Esme entered the room behind Carlisle, carrying a couple of plates of spaghetti and minced beef. She handed the two of them to Edward and me first, before returning to her spotless kitchen to retrieve the other two for herself and Carlisle. "Did you ask your father if you could stay the night?" He asked, his leg bouncing up and down whilst he waited for my answer. I shrugged and nodded, not really wanting to recap what had happened the previous day. In a nutshell, he was really mad but after an hour of arguing I finally convinced him.

He beamed brightly and his leg halted its movements as his mother entered the room. Once we were all surrounding the table, Carlisle sparked the conversation.

He was in the middle of telling a joke, of which I could understand, yet didn't find it funny. But I laughed politely, hoping he couldn't see through me. "A Neutron walks into a bar and asks how much for a drink. The bartender replies 'for you, no charge'." Edward groaned and held his head in his hands just above his plate.

"Dad, please don't embarrass me in front of-" before he could finish the sentence, I found myself giggling at him. He peered over at me, narrowing his eyes in mock annoyance. One of his hands slipped under the table to hold mine, effectively halting my laughter when I felt the familiar feeling pulse through me at his touch. He cocked a smile at my reaction and leaned over to press a chaste kiss to my lips. Beyond the fireworks that seemed to go off every time we kissed, I heard a light 'aw' before I realised that we were still in the same room as his parents. I pulled away slightly, grateful that my hair curtained over my face so Esme and Carlisle couldn't see how my face was now turning as red as a tomato.

She sighed. "Oh, I remember how we used to be like that, Liley." I held in my laugh at the nickname.

"Used to be?" Carlisle quoted his wife. "Pumpkin, we're _still_ like that," He insisted, proving it by leaning over the table and kissing her petite nose. Edward groaned again, stood up suddenly and pulled me up with him.

"We're going upstairs!" He chimed quickly, before leading me to the stairs. As we left the room and trekked up the stairs, I could hear Edward's parents chuckling, whispering amongst themselves. I realised what they could assume we were doing, and I immediately blushed again. Edward looked back over his shoulder to face me, his face slightly softening from his previous embarrassment. "What's up?" He inquired, stopping as we descended up the last step to reach over and stroke the apple of my rosy cheek with the back of his fingers.

I blushed brighter and laughed nervously. "What must your parents think of me after... that," I attempted to explain, lifting my hands uselessly to indicate what I meant.

"They won't think any less of you, Bella. They loved you from the moment I told them I had a girlfriend." He chuckled before continuing to pull me to his room. "And, if in some strange circumstance they didn't like you," he turned to flash me a huge grin, "they wouldn't be able to stop what we're about to do right now."

As planned, I spent the night in Edward's bed, exchanging small kisses and just talking. It was bliss, even if the duvet cover was more for a five year old. We taken part in some other... activities during the late hours, but I'm not one to kiss and tell. Or have sex and tell... whichever. Apart from the loving glances that were giving during the night and the way Edward managed to make me feel like a goddess, he done the sweetest thing for me in the morning.

The sun was gratefully hidden behind the blue curtains, and there was no noise in the house apart from a few soft footsteps and sizzling of something being fried. I wondered how late it could be, but before I could lift myself to check the time, soft lips started trailing kisses down my neck and onto my left shoulder. I smiled as Edward pressed his lips gently to my fluttering eyelids just before he leaned onto the bed to kiss me fully. I giggled and he broke away, grinning happily. "I couldn't help myself," he mumbled just loud enough for me to hear.

Edward lifted himself off of me to retrieve a plate with the perfect breakfast. Well, the perfect breakfast for _me._

I was served a couple of pancakes coated in golden syrup, and on the side there were three strips of bacon, also somewhat covered in the gooey goodness. I remembered when I told him about my favourite foods, and this was certainly one of them. Back then, it was just a lazy afternoon on the weekends when we had nothing to do but... that... or just talk. That day, I found out that he enjoyed peanut and jelly sandwiches more than anything else.

"You didn't have to make me breakfast, Edward," I kissed his nose and he blushed lightly, nothing compared to the darkness of my face the previous day. "But thank you." I grabbed the silver knife and fork before cutting through the pancake and bacon, popping the forkful into my mouth.

He shrugged and smiled. "If you want me to, I can make you breakfast every morning. Whatever you want." There was a hidden emotion that I couldn't quite detect in his words, but I didn't have time to figure it out. Edward had placed himself on the bed next to me, lying on his side as he began to wind his arm around my waist, looking up at me, his forest green eyes shining behind his black framed glasses. He stared for about five Mississippi's before tightening his hold and resting his head against my side.

Whilst I munched on my delicious meal, I thought back to Rosalie's words from that day outside the swimming pool. What could she have meant? Could it have really been about school? I doubt she would try to be wise like that to get me out of school.

So what could she... wait. The adoring looks, the years he spent growing to love me as he had always said, Rose's warning... Could Edward be planning to do what I'd never considered to happen in my life? Was he going to ask me to... marry, him? Was I ready for this? I'd known him since we were young, but we'd only been together for some months. Didn't Rose say something about setting our relationship at my own speed? Could I do that to Edward?

No... Saying no would break his heart. I... I couldn't do anything like that to him. But, on the other hand, I don't know whether I'm ready for marriage.

It took me awhile to remember where I was through my worrying, but when I did finally escape from my thoughts, I was met with a frantic Edward. He had risen from his spot on my waist to look around my face. His brow was furrowed as he searched for any sign of distress. "Bella? Bella love, are you alright?" He asked, holding my face in the palms of his hands. I shook away my stillness and nodded. He exhaled in relief and took the plate away from me, seeing as I had somehow finished my meal without knowing about it. I must have just been sitting there in silence with the knife and fork still in my hands.

* * *

**EPOV**

Once she was dressed and presentable after her breakfast and my minor freak out, we went downstairs to watch some TV, and we were met with my parents already on the couch, lazily watching something my mother was addicted to. We said our greetings before we plopped down on the other end of the cream seat, staring at the program that was already on. I'd never really liked '_Waterloo Road'_, and from the look on Bella's face, she wasn't too pleased with it either, yet she politely sat through it until my parents went out to visit some old friends they had recently re-discovered lately. It just happened to collide with their monthly plans to travel, so they hauled their few bags into the car and left.

This was my chance. This was the opportunity I had been waiting for... but I couldn't pop the question just yet. Maybe tomorrow? I would need to gather the supplies and set everything up before hand so it was special, which I could do tonight and tomorrow morning after Bella went home.

We spent the rest of that day just hanging out. The channel had been switched to '_Red Dwarf'_, one of the most loved comedies that included sci-fi I knew on television. But although I liked it, it was an episode I had seen too many a time before, and it quickly became dull, so instead, I occupied myself with Bella. We talked a little more about her mother and her husband, Phil, and I was painfully reminded of how I only had another two weeks with her before she was practically shipped off to stay with them for the reminder of the holidays.

Throughout the rest of the bright morning and into the lazy afternoon, I began to realise something that was starting to stand out like a sore thumb to me.

Something was happening with Bella.

I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but she was... distant, at times. One minute we would be laughing and kissing, completely worry free, and then the next she would be lost in thought, staring into space. When I went to kiss her or to ask her what was wrong, she would snap out of it and act as if nothing had happened.

After she had left at around four, I put together a checklist in a small black notepad I kept in one of the draws of my desk. It was basically unused, only holding the odd sketch of some mythical creature I would conjure up in my dreams when I was about ten. Looking back, the things I drew actually looked book worthy. I could have written stories that connected to the artwork I found in there, but that wasn't what I became in my later life. Being an author was more of Bella's thing.

Anyway, I wrote down the items I planned to buy whilst I was at the Thriftway later that day.

Red and white rose petals

Small scented candles – preferably jasmine or even lavender

Perhaps even some new bed sheets

I had already gotten the ring from my parents. It was perfect, exactly what I had dreamed of presenting to her when I was younger and a little more naive. In my mind, the way mine and Bella's relationship came to be felt a little bit like a fairy tale as I had made it to be all those years ago. The stunning and all-round amazing princess discovers the spotty little frog that adored her so, and with one kiss, it finally started living. I guess in real life it was sort of my sister who brought me and Bella together, but details, details.

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**Eddie's preparing for his big proposal! What's gonna happen next? Even I'm not sure... What do you guys want to happen?**

**Anymore fanfic recommendations guys? I need to get back to reading more of these whilst I'm trying to get through 'The Hobbit' book.**

**Sorry I haven't posted in a little while. School and everything isn't really all that easy to bypass to write out a chapter or two. Please review!**


	20. Surprise

**Thanks to Bluepenguin218 for her advice for this chapter!**

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**BPOV**

After spending most of the day with Edward at his house, I drove back to my father's house, the house I had grown up in since the age of five. I think that as a kid, you kind of store the little things about people and places in order to remember them. Charlie's house and himself had always smelt like pine, the musky scent that encompassed the building from the surrounding forest. There was also a mix of Bolognese in the air, as it was the only food he could cook other than beans on toast, from when I was young until when I was the grand age of eighteen now.

Charlie was the chief of police, therefore could not shirk his duties to spend the three weeks I was here with me. He was usually out until around half nine or maybe ten if something major was happening, so I would be on my own until then. Figuring I could start preparing myself dinner and saving some in the oven until he got home, but I couldn't find anything worthy of cooking. I kinda felt like the Baudelaire children from that book as I sifted through the draws and cupboards of the kitchen. All I could find was a few strands of dried spaghetti on the counter, and some wasted orange juice in the fridge. I huffed in frustration as I realised that if I was to eat, I would need to drive over to the Thriftway to buy some food for my dad and me. I reached inside one of the cupboards and stole about fifteen dollars from the money jar, hoping it was enough to buy some supplies.

I pulled my coat around me and trudged outside, which had suddenly shifted from its sunny ways. Clouds had covered the blue skies and the sun, and rain threatened to fall, giving Forks its usual gloomy look._ Come on!_ I whined in my head. _It's summer, for goodness sake!_

I practically rolled along the road in my rundown Chevy that my father had bought from a couple of friends out of town. He grumbled when I thanked him for it, but all I caught from that nearly incoherent piece of speech was 'you wouldn't be thanking me if you knew...' and I didn't really understand it. Lately that was just it for me. Riddles and hidden meanings were getting a little old in my opinion, although I was still striving to be an author of some sort. Anyway, I finally reached the parking lot of the only food store within driving range for my poor truck, and hopped out after the monster stuttered to a stop, locking the doors and scanning the lot.

I saw nothing out of the ordinary after my instinctual search, apart from a few flashy cars that you wouldn't expect to see in this town. There was even a silver Volvo lingering in the corner, and I wondered who it could belong to, but I didn't ponder on it too long. My stomach began to rumble, reminding me of the reason I was here and forcing me into the super market.

Despite the impending darkness outside, the shop was incredibly bright, almost blinding me as I strolling in with a metal trolley in my hands. I rolled the thing along, quickly dropping things into the cart without thinking about it, until I spotted Edward hauling a basket full of things I couldn't really spy from where I was standing, next to the cereals. He looked a little awkward as he walked. He rubbed his hands against his thighs a few times as he scanned the duvet cover aisle, tapping his Converse covered feet against the floor before selecting something he hid with his back before dropping it in the basket. I wondered if I should go over and talk to him. I mean, that's kinda mandatory for a couple, right? I mean, you don't see your boyfriend somewhere and just ignore them.

I had taken one step toward Edward before I deep but slightly sickly voice and a chill down my spine stopped me. "Bella. Haven't seen you in a while."

It was painfully obvious who was behind me, talking to me after everything that had happened in High school. What was he doing here? I was so sure that he had moved away... Maybe he was visiting Forks during the holiday just like I was. I tried to make it seem like I didn't hear him, but it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. I was frozen, unable to move as I anticipated his next move.

Paul menacingly walked around me until he stood in front of the trolley, heavily leaning of the bar at there with his hands. "How are you doing these days? You look good." His dark eyes drifted over me, staring at... well parts I really wanted only Edward to look at.

"I'm fine, thank you." I mumbled in a shaky voice, wishing that my dad had _at least_ a fish in the freezer so I wouldn't have had to come here until tomorrow. I reviewed the self-defence class my father had made me go to when I was about nine, and remembered the ways to prevent ever getting into a situation where violence would become an issue. I had to stay confident, even in a brightly lit super market where anyone could stop this... I couldn't of a word to describe how horrible he was. "It was nice to see you," I said, remaining calm, "but I really must get back home."

He nodded and strolled over to me, placing his fingertip on my cheek, slowly dragging it down until it held onto my chin. "Maybe we can meet up," he suggested, breathing his hot and raspy breath over me. I hated it. He was obviously ill, maybe with just the common cold, so I wanted to get away from him, or at least cover my mouth so I c=wouldn't get infected. "I doubt your love life has gone any better than mine." He let me go and I was incredibly thankful to be free. I took the opportunity to speed away as fast as I could without causing a scene. "See you late, my Bella." His Bella? I wasn't _his _Bella anymore, nor was I ever, not really. I was just a puppet. He pulled the strings until I fell into his trap before he abandoned me and moved onto the next toy he saw.

Once I was far enough away, I breathed in deeply, trying to slow my rapidly beating heart to its normal pulse. I glanced up to where Edward was standing just before the intrusion.

He was standing there in pure shock, and anger. His eyes had widened a lot, raising his glasses on his face, and he was looking me over, probably checking if I was okay after encountering one of his old bullies. Paul walked back past me, a ten pack of beer in his hand, and he went straight over to Edward. He chuckled. "Oh look! It's Eddie the kid! How's it going, squirt?" Paul was much tall than me, and standing next to Edward, he looked even more like a giant. Squirt was quite accurate. He ruffled Edward's hair as if he were a child before carrying on over to the till, muttering something about a high school reunion loudly.

When he was finally out of sight, Edward abandoned his basket and rushed over to me, touching my face with an almost murderous look in his eyes. "What did he say to you?" He demanded, kissing my forehead lightly.

"It was nothing, he just asked me how I was, and then said we should catch up." I shrugged it off, hoping that Edward would go along with it, but he could see right through my lies.

He shook his head. "Bella, in high school, that guy gave me the most painful wedgies known to man. He violated and embarrassed you, and that's just the beginning of everything bad he's accomplished." Edward caressed my face gently, looked me in the eye and asked me if he done anything to scare me at all. I told him that he may have been a little suggestive, but before I could say anymore, his face bloomed a dark shade of red, and he appeared like he was planning to track Paul down to murder him. I managed to calm him down before saying a quick goodbye and leaving him in the shop to finish his shopping.

When I woke up the next morning, all I could feel was a pounding in my head and a slight shift in my stomach. I groaned loudly and lifted my head, which suddenly felt about as heavy as a bowling ball. I peered over to the little mirror on my bedside table, seeing that my eyes had now been joined by a couple of dark bags. They also looked a little bloodshot, and my skin just looked like it had recovered from the plague. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a little. But I had never really been sick, and this was a surprise to me.

I dragged myself out of my bed and down the stairs, still clad in my red sweats and oversized white t-shirt. Charlie had left around an hour earlier, needing to get to work early to help out with an urgent case from yesterday, so I alone for most of the day. I switched the TV on, but it was still a little old and needed to warm up before I could watch anything. I considered getting up and making myself breakfast, but my legs just didn't seem to want to move after I had fallen onto the couch, so I figured I could live without food for a little while.

As the screen finally started to fade into an old film, the phone rang loudly next to me, increasing the pain pulsing through my head. I reached over and quickly grabbed it holding it to my ear, curling my legs under me. "Hello?" I croaked.

"Bella?" Usually, Edward's voice would soothe me to no end, but right now, I was so groggy I didn't really feel anything else other than the increase of my hearts speed. "Um... I was wondering if you wanted to come over tonight. Mom and dad are still out of town, so I thought..." He stuttered after I replied.

"I don't think I can, Edward. As much as I want to, I woke up with a terrible cold, and I really don't think I can move for the rest of the day," I informed him, proving my point unintentionally by sniffing.

"Do you want me to come over and look after you?" He asked desperately. "I had nothing else to do today other than spend time with you, so I'm more than happy to..." He trailed off, seeking a positive answer. I laughed quickly before I erupted into coughs. "I'll take that as a yes," he muttered. "I'll be over in ten minutes." And with that, the call ended.

Even though I didn't want to trouble Edward with this sickness I most likely contracted from Paul, but I was actually really happy that I would have someone here with me whilst I'm all snotty like this. Seriously, my nose was clogged up, and if I were to breath out of both of my nostrils, there would literally be no air coming back out. It was incredibly infuriating.

Edward arrived a little while later, a small pot of aspirin and some zinc in his hands. He smiled lightly as I acknowledged him, and asked if I'd had breakfast, which led to him making me some anyway. It was the same as yesterday's meal, but whenever I took a sip from the orange juice, which I conveniently bought the previous day, he refilled it, using the excuse that it was good for colds.

We spent the day kind of huddled on the couch. He couldn't care less about catching what I had, as he held me as tightly as he could and kept touching my skin with his lips. The day was relatively happy, even though it was the only day I had actually been sick like this.

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**Aw! No proposal? **

**I may have said there would be one in this chapter, but, eh, I lied. I have absolutely no idea what happened in this.**

**Guys, please review! They encourage me to write, and normally the maximum of reviews I get per chapter is three. THREE! I know, I'm greedy xD**


	21. Brief memories and scary encounters

**EPOV**

Bella was in the same state of illness for the next few days, and although I was happy to look after her whilst her father was at work, I was upset that I was unable to carry out my plans to propose. It just didn't feel right to do something big like this when she was under the weather, and I was kind of scared that she would loathe me for doing such a thing at a time like this. Obviously I didn't show my disappointment in front of her, in case she figured out my intentions (even if I didn't realise that ship had sailed already at that time).

So, I ran down to the nearest Pharmacy a couple of times to buy anything that could relieve Bella's stuffy nose, her throbbing headaches that occurred multiple times during each day, and her painful coughing. It was hard to keep myself from kissing her as she was set on making sure I didn't catch her cold, but I had been around her enough times that I would have caught it and been sick with her. I had a great immune system, which was surprising because my father worked at the local hospital, and no matter how clean they try to get themselves with hand washes and such, there's always a little bit of whatever illness the patient they had been working with on them.

When Bella was once again bright eyed and bushy tailed, she quite literally shooed me from her house, telling me that I need time to myself after looking after her for so long. I attempted to convince her that I was perfectly fine to stay, seeing as I had planned for most of the holidays to be with her, but she ceased my pleas with a simple shake of her head. I huffed and left her to have her time, seeing as there was no way around it. I had plenty of time to myself that summer and I wanted to spend as much as I could with Bella, possibly trying to find another way to ask her to marry me.

As Bella slept on the couch in front of me whilst she was sick, I thought about what I could do if she said no to my proposal. To be honest, I could wait to actually get married as we were both pretty young, but maybe I could just ask her to wear the ring in a long engagement. I mean, people did that, right?

The alternative was painful to think about, but it was her choice. I just hoped that she would say yes.

I only have four days. I only had four measly days with Bella before she flew over to stay at her mothers. I practically camped outside Bella's house during the last week of her staying here, arriving at eight in the morning and staying until nine at night, right before her father returned from work. I was sure that she would begin to get tired of me, but surprisingly, she was just as eager. She answered the door every morning in her pyjamas and with her hair piled on top of her head in what looked like a haystack. It made her look so cute.

Most of those last days we would just cuddle on the couch whilst we watched a film such as Romeo and Juliet using her DVD player, but on a sunny, warm day Bella desired to go outside. So, we took a walk to the park. The local park wasn't anything too special. Just a medium sized patch of grass for dog walkers and picnic enthusiasts, and it in the center of it lays a small fountain. As a boy, I used to dip my feet into the water of it, but since then the water was barely ever changed. Moss and mould caked the ground around and on it, and algae plagued the inside. It looked like multiple people had died it there.

We stood by the forgotten fountain, staring into its murky water. "I used to play in this," Bella mused, bringing back memories like I was. "I remember when my mom came here for my sixth birthday, we had a little picnic. It wasn't really the time of year to play in water outside, but no one stopped me from putting my swimming costume on and jumping in. All I can really remember from that day was the '_Incredibles'_ cake I had and how freezing the water was." She smiled lightly and glanced up as the sun shone from between the clouds, setting an oddly comforting gleam on the mouldy water. "Luckily my dad realised that I was shaking and pulled me into a towel and into the car before I started turning blue."

I wrapped both of my arms around her, trying to draw her away from her daunting childhood memories. Okay, it wasn't that bad of an experience, but we all have at least one memory that we hate to look back on. Mine was a scary nightmare. I dreamed that ants were doing dental work on my mother whilst I talked to my grandfather, and he said something about her never going to the dentist. The ants drilled into her teeth and I could hear her screaming, but I was soon woken by my mom and she was just fine. Strange.

We slowly trekked around the park once or twice, just holding one another's hands and talking. When we eventually decided that we had spent enough time outside, we began to head back to her house before we were halted by the sight of Paul and his buddies from La push. La push was a small Indian reservation just outside of town, and the only people I knew from there were Embry, Quil and Paul. Of course, they used to all be Forks high's bullies. I was usually given a couple of bruises from them, but that was it, and they were really small. All they really done were give me the good old-fashioned Wedgies and perhaps shove me in the hallways a few times. I was sure that we were hidden behind a large oak enough that they wouldn't see us, but Embry's head whipped around and he spotted us, pointing us out to Paul. He grinned, but that grin dissolved when he saw me holding Bella's hand. They began to stalk over to us, and all I could imagine was him turning into the Hulk. He would definitely suit the look.

"Bella," I whimpered, knowing there was no way out of this. I was never the best of runners, and fighting Paul and his friends was _not_ the best option, seeing as I would be knocked out after the first punch. "What do we do?"

"Just stay calm, okay?" When I didn't reply, she turned her head to look at me. "Edward?"

A chill ran down my spine. "How can I keep calm? The incredible Hulk is about to pound me into the ground for dating his ex-girlfriend." I stuttered, my eyes still frozen on Paul's approach.

She giggled at the nickname and gripped onto my hand, her silky fingers rubbing circles on the back of it. "I'll talk. I'm sure he won't want to talk to us for too long. Before you know it, we'll be back on the couch, snuggled under a throw." That comforted me some, but all comfort was abolished when they eventually reached us.

"Hey Bells." Paul greeted, his eyes rock hard as he stared me down. I cringed. "So, Eddie the kid. Care to explain why you're touching my ex's hand?" I instantly felt like letting go, but Bella's touch kept me from flying apart, so I remained silent, suddenly finding the ground very interesting.

Bella cleared her throat. "You have no control over me, Paul." She spat, glaring at the intruder of our day.

He rolled his eyes comically, seeking a reaction from his friends who both laughed in synchronization. "You can't just move on this quickly Bells-"

"Don't you _dare_ call me Bells." Bella seethed. "I absolutely _hated_ that nickname ever since you first gave me it."

He ignored her comment and continued as if it never happened. "I'm hurt. So soon after we broke up, you've already settled for... the nerdy sort." He mocked a shiver. I peered over at Bella, and I could see the anger growing inside her and flaming in her eyes. She kept quiet so Paul carried on, figuring that he had won this battle. "So _Bells, _what do you say to going out for a drink this gorgeous Friday? Maybe we can get back to our old ways." He wagged in eyebrows suggestively, and now even I thought I could conjure the courage to rip his head off. Unfortunately, it was obvious that as soon as I would start standing up for me and my girlfriend, I would get battered by these guys.

Bella however wasn't as careful as I. "You motherfucking idiot!" How many times had I heard her curse? Suddenly I was feeling kinda turned on. _Not the best time,_ I thought to myself, but I allowed some small fantasies of a foul mouthed Bella in my head. "How dare you! You cast me aside, ruining my life, plunging me into self hatred, and you think you have a chance?" Paul was looking at her with a smile on his face, not phased by her outbreak, but although Quil and Embry stood their ground, they seemed a little on edge. "I gave you my heart, and you looked at it comically before throwing it on the floor and stamping on it! Leaving it to rot there whilst you went to have another one of your 'relationships' with the cheerleaders!"

He tried to look innocent, as if this was the first he'd heard of anything of the sort, but anyone could see right through him, and it just made Bella even more infuriated. Looking around, I could see that this little encounter had drawn in quite a crowd. So I skimmed my fingers and pressed my palm against the small of her back, hoping that my touch would calm her down, but it didn't work the way I'd planned. "Wipe that ugly look off of your face you horse-nosed prick! I hope every girl you attempt to talk to flips you off and knees you where it hurts, 'cause you don't deserve any one of them!" And with that, she stormed off, leaving Paul with a shocked face, and I mean an _actual_ shocked face. Not just planted there for comedy. I smiled sheepishly at him before turning on my heel and jogging after her. I heard a distant cheer of the witness's, and I felt a surge of pride for Bella as I followed her.

She had reached the gate we were headed for earlier, and once we had both slipped through it and were behind a hedge, out of Paul's sight, I launched myself over to Bella, wrapping my arms around her and kissing her frantically. We pulled away breathless a couple of moments later. "What was that for?" She asked in an unsure voice, instantly turning into the shy Bella I usually saw.

"I'm so proud of you for standing up to him. And..." I blushed and looked down. "You looked really hot screaming at him like that." I mumbled, partially hoping that she hadn't heard a word I had said.

I peeked up from beyond my glasses, seeing if she was mad for thinking of such a thing at a time like this. But instead, I saw her biting her bottom lip, her eyelids drooping a little. She tugged on my hand and pulled me along with her as she started for her house. "Dad's will be home in three hours, so we have to get there quick to have enough time."

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